The Moon is Beautiful, Isn't It?
by TwinCarcino
Summary: "Senior Year is best!" they said, "Art is the easiest!" they said. Peridot was sure those who said that never had Lapis Lazuli as their art teacher during senior year.
1. Chapter 1

The beginning of each school year was always a bundle of excitement for students regardless of year. New lockers, new classes, new faces and new friends and still riding the buzz from summer vacation. For seniors, it was the final year before they went off to college and that alone added to the usual excitement for the first few days of school before the workload effectively broke the student and they fell back into the melancholy that was the stress and anxiety of high school. Students would grow bitter of their locker placements because they 'aren't close enough' to their friends or classes, students complain about their new teachers or how they don't have their friends in certain classes. As for new faces and new friends? It's a rare case if friends change up and add more or less to their little cliques.

Peridot awkwardly tugged on the strap of her dull brown messenger bag, covered liberally with pins of various sizes and designs. With her head held low, she trudged through the crowded halls, intent on getting to her classroom so she could get to work. Unlike most students, Peridot didn't feel the buzz of excitement over starting a new school year, she didn't bother deluding herself in the idea of a new beginning. What was the point? Even if she tried to make any changes, everything was just going to stay the same regardless. She'd keep her same small band of friends, she'd stay on the lower end of the totem pole as the school's outcast nerd. The same students would pick on her, the same students would ignore her. Just trying to change anything was a waste of time and energy.

The final year of high school for the short blonde senior only meant a metric ton worth of books to carry every day, nights spent slaving away doing homework and studying, and the neverending "Your grades could vastly improve" from her mother despite the A's she'd bring home. All it meant was stress, stress, and more stress. The only real silver lining she could find, however, was the art class she'd taken up for the first semester.

Though Peridot's mother was very pushing and insistent for Peridot to do something 'useful' with her life, such as computer work. She was taking programming classes this year too, her mother told her if she did well enough she could start working for her mother's tech company. It was a career guaranteed so long as Peridot behaved. More than she could say for the majority of her classmates. She liked programming enough, but, she had a soft side to art as well. Programming was work, enjoyable but still work, art had been her release from stress and a form of relaxation for her, and now she'd get to take classes for it.

Slipping into the classroom, a sizable room with long, paint stained tables and walls lined with canvases, paint and other art supplies, Peridot found herself a desk towards the back. There were only a few other students in the room. Some she recognized, some she didn't.

The blonde had barely put her bag down and pulled out a notebook before an arm slung around her frail shoulders and almost pulled her from her seat.

"Yo! Peri! Fancy seeing you in this class," Amethyst greeted as she ruffled the already rather unruly short hair of her best friend. The latino woman had a large smile, as usual, eyes shining with playful mirth as she took a seat next to Peridot at the table, "Glad I get to spend my first class with you, nerd."

Peridot couldn't help but smile a little when she was released, straightening her glasses a bit and nodded, "Yes, well… I managed to convince Mother to let me take this course," she explained. In truth, she told her mother she needed to take a fine arts course still to be able to graduate, and her mother begrudgingly let her indulge in a class despite it, in her words, teaching students useless skills that'd get them nowhere.

"It's like Hell froze over," Amethyst whistled as more students began to trickle into the room, loud and full of laughter as they grouped up with their friends. The class would be starting pretty soon, "I hear they hired a new teacher for art since Vidalia left." Vidalia had been the school's art teacher for the past six years, but, during the end of last year, she left when her husband transferred. Honestly, Peridot wasn't sure how that worked, as far as she understood Yellowtail was a fisherman and didn't quite get how he would transfer. Maybe all the fish he caught went away and he needed to follow them. Didn't matter.

"So long as she isn't some old windbag that'd make this class boring," Peridot answered as she flipped her notebook open. She jotted down the date and time, along with the class she was in, ready to write down any notes she might need to put down for the first day. The teacher was probably just going to go over the usual introductory things, but, it never hurt to be prepared.

With a nod, Amethyst leaned back in her chair, "I hope she's hot."

"Don't you have a girlfriend already?"

"Doesn't mean I can't still appreciate a good looking woman," Amethyst shot back, "I don't mind when Pearl gives doe eyes to the nurse, she doesn't mind when I appreciate the bodies of other women. So long as neither of us touch. Doesn't change that we love each other more than anyone else."

Shrugging, Peridot didn't have anything to say to that. Romance wasn't really her specialty, neither were relationships for that matter. The most she understood about either was from what she saw on TV. Single and not ready to mingle was her slogan.

Just as the bell rang signifying class to start, a woman stepped into the room and all voices hushed. She walked with an air of authority and power despite her petite size. She didn't look that old either, maybe fresh out of college, her hair was a dark blue that Peridot was sure was against protocol for teachers, not that their principal would have cared. She wore a blue blouse and blue jeans that matched her blue eyes, everything about this woman was blue.

Dropping a pile of papers onto the otherwise empty desk in front of the class, the woman turned to the board and grabbed a marker. Without saying anything she wrote in flowing curvy lettering _Ms. Lapis Lazuli_. At the end of both 'L's, there was a fancy type of curve to them. Underneath her name, she added an email address, presumably so students could email her should the need arise.

Turning back to the class, Ms. Lazuli flashed the students a smile, "Hey there, nice to meet you. I'm your art teacher, Lapis Lazuli. You can call me Ms. Lazuli," she introduced herself in front of the class, putting both hands on her desk and shifting her weight onto it. "I'm going to be honest with you all. I'm not going to be as lenient as you might expect for a teacher from an art class. If you put in actual effort and do your best, you're going to pass. But for those of you who are just taking this class expecting an easy A without even trying, well, you'll be thoroughly disappointed. Yeah, I'm looking at you, table six, left chair, keep laughing like that and you'll find that I can just as easily fail you. I doubt your parents would be all too happy to hear you failed _art_."

As though on cue the aforementioned student stopped his barely hidden snickering, shifting awkwardly in his seat as he looked away from the teacher in front of them.

Letting out a low whistle, Amethyst drew her attention to the girl beside her, "Man, she's something," she whispered quietly, eyes trained on Ms. Lazuli, "Vidalia's bound to be proud of being replaced by someone like her. Damn is she hot, too."

Peridot cast her a low glare, "Amethyst!" she hissed quietly, cheeks taking on a light pink hue. "You shouldn't talk about a teacher like that!" but, her friend wasn't _wrong_. Lapis Lazuli was attractive in her own right, and she couldn't have been too much older than the students.

"Is there something you would like to share with the class, table 10?" Lazuli called out to Peridot and Amethyst both straightened up in their seats as a few of their classmates turned to face them. Lapis was staring at them with an expression of annoyance, but if looked closely they could both see the amusement in her eyes. With arms crossed, she waited, giving a 'Well? Go on.' sort of gesture for the two.

Peridot almost stood up from her chair to speak, ducking her head low to avoid looking at the classmates or her teacher, "Uh, no, miss. S-Sorry," she stammered, feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"I see, well, please try to keep the noise level to a minimum when I'm talking, that goes for all of you," Lazuli said as she reached out onto her desk to pick up some of the papers she'd brought in. Moving to approach the tables, she began dispatching the pages among her students, "Well, moving on. Since today is the first day and all, we won't be going over anything class related. Instead, I'm giving you all a sort of get-to-know-you sheet. Fill out with your name, age, any nicknames you would like to go by- no promises I'll call you by that. You can see there are other questions on here, and I want you to answer truthfully. This is so I can get to know you all, and get to know what sort of students I'll be dealing with."

There were muttered and mumbled responses both good and bad by having to do something like this, and soon the sound of pencils and pens scribbling away was filling the room. As Lapis got to the last table, she placed the two papers for Amethyst and Peridot. She stayed there for a second watching them for far longer than Peridot felt like she should have. Not that the student dared met her teacher's gaze, quickly filling out the page in silence, as though Lapis wasn't there. If she was being honest, feeling her staring at her was making her stomach do flips as anxiety gnawed at her from inside.

Lapis lingered at their table a little longer before she moved back to her desk up front. Every so often Peridot would look up and find those blue eyes watching her before they moved on to a different table.

She's just surveying the class, calm down. Peridot tried to assure herself that it was okay, but couldn't help like she'd already gotten on her teacher's bad side somehow. It wasn't unusual, Peridot felt like lots of people tended to dislike her right off the bat, not that it made her feel good or anything. Instead, she tried to focus on filling out the sheet given to her.

It was simple questions, where she was from, what year she was in, three interests, what she wants to do when out of school. The type of questions one would expect on a paper like this. Amethyst was already done with hers before Peridot had even finished, probably filled most of it with puns or stupid kinds of remarks.

Because it was the first day and that there wasn't much to do, the class didn't do much, spending the remaining time talking to each other to get to know their fellow student and before long the bell was ringing signifying the class period was over and it was time for the students to get to their next one.

"Peri! Damn, girl," Amethyst quickly yelled as she grabbed Peridot and dragged her down the hall when they left the room, "I swear Lazuli was staring at you the entire period! What did you do?"

"Apparently something," Peridot muttered as she adjusted her grip on her bag, walking at a brisk pace so as to not be late to her physics class, "I didn't even do anything and it feels like she already doesn't like me."

But her friend was snorting with laughter as Peridot said that, "Doesn't like you? Sure, if that's what kind of feel you got from it," the girl teased, giving Peridot a rather rough shove forward, "But, I've got to head off to my English class, I'll catch you at lunch!"

Waving goodbye, Peridot didn't even get a chance to agree before the woman was running down the hall in the opposite direction. Heaving a sigh, she marched on forward, ready to get through with her physics class and continue her day as best as she could.

* * *

She didn't have another class until the following period, which would be good for days when she had projects to review or grade. As of right now, Lapis sat back in her chair, leafing through the papers she'd collected, reading the names and interests. _Dogs, Planes, Football, Boobies,_ she couldn't help but snicker at the less than mature response one student put for their interest. It was high school, what could she expect?

She glanced up at the back table in the room and then flipped through some more papers until she reached last ones. Peridot Olivine. What a nice name, ironic too. But, she supposed her name was just as much a joke. The girl was so short, and with her blonde hair so messy, sticking up and out almost like she was trying to make a triangle, it was hard not to notice her.

Honestly, she was kind of cute.

She even got a little kick out of how fidgety Peridot seemed to grow when Lapis lingered at her table after handing out the papers. She'd purposely stayed in the back longer than she needed to watching Peridot, and even at her desk she'd watch her student before moving on to some other kid in her class whenever Peridot looked up. A grin made its way to her face as she thought it over. She wanted to make Peridot flustered even more, and she had all the confidence in herself that she could do that easily.

Lapis knew it wasn't appropriate by any means. But, since when did she consider herself one who stuck to the rules as though they were tattooed onto her tanned ass? It would be fun messing with her. What's a little harmless teasing going to hurt?

She could already tell this was going to be a fun year.


	2. Chapter 2

Physics had been annoying, not because of the content but rather because of the teacher being so unbearable. It didn't help that Peridot had Pearl for a classmate in Physics, which was never a good thing for the two. Academic rivalries ran deep between them despite their friendship and the two always ended up trying to one-up the other in any class they shared. Peridot was determined not to have a grade lower than Pearls, and Pearl felt the same way towards them. Amethyst said they were the nerd version of athletes. Out of the classroom, they were best of friends, but in the classroom, Pearl and Peridot were mortal enemies.

After Physics, Peridot had Gym with Ms. Chalcedony. Honestly speaking? That woman terrified Peridot. She was much bigger than any man in the building, looked like she belonged with the Amazons. With a mane of bleached white hair, white streaks across her otherwise dark skin and just a generally pissed off expression, she wasn't the kind of teacher to anger. Rumor had it she was ex-military, other rumors said the military was too scared to let her in any of the branches. Regardless, she looked like she could bench-press the entire class and not break a sweat.

She didn't even bother with introductions and the usual get-to-know-you's during the first day. Right off the bat, Ms. Chalcedony had them running laps, doing stretches and push-ups and sit-ups, all the while yelling that they could do better and push themselves harder. Peridot already didn't like that class, but there was nothing she could do. She skipped her semester of P.E the past three years and she had to take it now or be short the required credits to graduate.

Thankfully Peridot had a free period after gym so she could rest instead of going to class sore and tired. It also allowed her to take showers to wash away the sweat she accumulated after running around. After free period would be lunch where she could sit with her friends, and after that Peridot would be off to a history course with Ms. Agate and finish it all off with a programming class, then she could go home and be done with the day.

Walking down the hall, Peridot didn't really know what she was going to do. She didn't have any assignments to work on during her free period. Though, she supposed she could just watch an episode of Camp Pining Hearts on her laptop during the hour.

"Hey, you're Peridot, right? Peridot Olivine?"

At hearing her name, Peridot stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around. Stepping out of the staff's room was Lapis Lazuli, cradling a travel mug of coffee in her hands. She had a small, lopsided smile as she leaned against the frame, watching Peridot in an almost lazy manner.

"Well, are you? Don't you know it's wrong to keep a lady waiting, especially when she's waiting on your name?" Lapis' smile grew, playfulness behind her verbal bite that had Peridot shrink back, face heating up.

"Um, y-yeah," she mumbled, holding onto her messenger bag as though it were a lifeline of some sorts. She didn't dare look up to meet her gaze, much like in the classroom. There was something about the way that Lapis Lazuli held herself that made Peridot feel small in comparison. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Lapis shook her head at that, "No, everything's good. I just thought I recognized you from class, wanted to make sure I had your name right," she said it easily enough before taking a sip of her coffee, pushing herself from her spot at the doorframe to saunter up to Peridot. She leaned down, towering awfully close to the blonde, closer than the other was comfortable with, "Shouldn't you be in class, though? I know it's the first day and all, but I doubt your teacher is going to be happy that you're already playing hooky."

"I'm, I'm not playing hooky," Peridot defended herself quickly, taking a step back to avoid further embarrassment and to create some space between her and Lapis. "I, this is my free period."

"Free period right before lunch? How lucky of you."

"Yeah," Peridot mumbled, casting a look down the hall, "But, um, I'm going to be on my way now. It was nice talking to you, Ms. Lazuli, um, I'll see you tomorrow." Before Lapis could even get a word in, she was hurrying down the hall, eager to get away so she could breathe safely again. Her heart was racing in her chest and panic rising up, making her feel increasingly nauseous.

Lapis watched her go with amusement, arms crossed and hanging onto her mug with a loose grip. It had been luck that she'd crossed paths with Peridot when she had, all Lapis had been doing was refilling her coffee and on her way out to get some lunch. But, not that she was against the chance encounter at all.

So, Peridot had a free period right before lunch? Lapis filed that little tidbit away to be used later. If Peridot was free during this time of day, she could make use of it sometime down the road.

The girl was adorable when she blushed, and Lapis felt an almost predatory sense of glee. Like the wolf looking down on red riding hood (Or was it green riding hood in this case?), or the lioness watching the rabbit. She was going to enjoy this, that much was sure. Bringing a hand to her mouth to cover the smile, Lapis thought over the interaction some more in her head.

Peridot smelled faintly of pine needles and a bit too much Axe body spray.

By the time the final bell rolled around, Peridot was ready to be home and just relax for the rest of the day before she'd have to start it all up and over again tomorrow morning.

It wasn't too long of a walk from the school to her home. It took about fifteen minutes, twenty if she was slow or if the weather was rough. Not that she minded, Peridot had her phone and she had her headphones, so she could stand to walk for a while outside while the sun was still warm and she wasn't trying to trudge on through knee high snow or a billowing storm. It was actually pretty nice out, a beautiful September day with the birds chirping and the sun bright and warm on her back. But, all good things must come to an end soon, and she was home far sooner than she would have liked.

Her mother had nailed it into her since Peridot was very little that whenever she entered a home, be it her own or someone else's, she was to take her shoes off at the door. That to not do so was beyond rude and unrefined. She'd been given plenty of yellings when she was younger when she'd run into the house with her dirty shoes. Just a kid being a kid, having fun until her mother saw the dirt on the floor and flew into a rage.

Even though it was practically her own house, her mother rarely ever home-she much more preferred her estate in Empire City where she could be closer to her company than out here in Beach City- it was still so deeply ingrained in Peridot that she instinctively removed her shoes at the door before daring step another foot in the otherwise clean building.

Depositing her bag by the table, Peridot made herself comfortable on the couch, turning on the television as she began channel flipping. There wasn't any homework yet so she could just go straight to lazing about rather than working on school work for the first couple of days. By next week she suspected that she'd be swamped with work. But as of right now, the only noise in the house was that of the large TV as she flipped through different channels.

It wasn't all too bothersome when Peridot was home alone. Even when she was little her mother was rarely ever home. She was sure that the nannies and babysitters spent more time with Peridot growing up than her own mother did. Most times she wasn't home for her birthday, occasionally Peridot would get a card or maybe a gift a few weeks late. The older Peridot got, the more often she would spend her time in the large house alone.

As of now, Peridot is an 'adult' and lives alone. Her mother explicitly stated that there was no reason for her to waste money on nannies when Peridot was old enough to take care of herself. Sure, she was eighteen, but, when she was fourteen and her mother left her to fend for herself mostly, she would have liked the company.

Well… she wasn't entirely alone.

A meow drifted into the room and a smile graced Peridots face as she turned her body to the calico cat who had jumped onto the couch. "Hey, there, Percy," she cooed as she drew the purring cat into her arms. Yeah, she wasn't alone at home, she had her cat and she was perfectly happy with him and far more willing to take the cats company over her mothers. "How do you feel about a Camp Pining Hearts marathon, little buddy?" she asked as she turned on Netflix and started typing in the title. The cat meowed loudly in response.

With the show now playing and her cat snoozing on her chest, Peridot did try her best to focus on her favorite show. But it was hard to do so. Her mind began drifting to a certain blue haired woman every time she let herself loose focus. Her stomach did flips whenever she saw Lapis watching her, and when the woman got close she felt like she'd be sick.

What was she feeling? She wasn't sure and she didn't think she liked it either. If Ms. Lazuli kept it up, Peridot wasn't sure how she'd handle it, but she was quite confident it'd kill her. This was going to be a long year, she just knew it.

The blond tried not to think about it, but, Lapis had smelled like paint when they ran into each other, and past that, Peridot could have sworn she caught the scent of the sea on her teacher when Lapis got close to her in the hall today.

* * *

"Hey there, girl," Lapis greeted, dropping her bags to the floor and dropping herself to her knees as her dog came running towards her. She wasted no time petting and rubbing at the bullmastiff who was barking happily to see her owner home. "Hey, Mala, miss me, girl? I bet you did." Malachite barked again as though to confirm this.

Lapis was glad to have her dog with her now. Honestly, the rest of the day had been awful. Jasper tried striking up a conversation, tried hitting on her, tried getting a date. She tried anything she could to do something with Lapis again since they'd broken up. She did her best to ignore the amazonian, something that was difficult in its own right because Jasper, in general, was a hard woman to ignore. She was large and she was loud, and she got mean when she didn't get what she wanted.

It was clear to any who knew her that she wanted Lapis back, and since Lapis refused to go back, Jasper acted out. Lashing out at anyone and everyone, throwing tantrums, screaming, yelling, threatening to throw punches.

It was childish. It was pathetic.

But, Lapis couldn't complain, she chose to work at Beach City High despite knowing full well that Jasper also worked there as the schools gym teacher. She had no one but herself to blame if things went bad between them. Well, worse would be more accurate, thing were already bad between them. Things were beyond bad at this point.

It was honestly a miracle how neither of them was dead yet, killed by the other. Maybe it was some hidden bit of self-control that neither knew they possessed.

The two of them had dated for a while if she was to be honest. Lapis had been sixteen, Jasper had been twenty. Her parents flipped when they found out, and Lapis still wasn't sure which was worse to them; that Jasper was a woman or that Jasper was twenty. They weren't good for each other right off the bat, though they did have their sweet moments. Dated for a good amount of time, only breaking up a little over a year ago. Lapis was now twenty-four and Jasper twenty-eight. They dated for a good six or seven years before they broke up in a messy, explosive fight that hurt them both physically and emotionally.

They got together for awful reasons, and they broke up for awful reasons. Lapis knew this, Lapis was trying to move on. But Jasper never did well with moving forward. She always had been and always would be. But, Lapis wasn't going to let her own inability to get over their breakup chain her down.

She already had a date, in fact. Some woman she'd met at a bar the other night, they had made plans to meet up again tonight for a drink and maybe more.

It was already late, actually. She should get ready to go soon if she wanted to be on time. Best to feed Malachite now and let her out to do her business before she left, too.

As Lapis got to work fixing up Malachite some dinner, putting the bowl on the floor and moving to her own room to change clothes, she let her mind begin to wander. Already she could tell it was going to be hard to remember everyone's names and faces. Lapis knew she wasn't going to be able to remember everyone, but, she could try to remember as many of her students as she could. It wasn't like she had six classes a day. Being an elective class, she only had a few classes each day, nothing compared to English teachers and Math teachers.

Well, Lapis already had one name and face memorized. Peridot Olivine, it just rolled off the tongue and had such an adorable face to go with it.

"Wonder what she's up to right now," Lapis asked herself quietly as she stripped herself down to her underwear and began looking through her closet for something nice to wear. Sure it wasn't any classy date, they were going to be at a bar. But, Lapis still had to look good if she wanted the date to go anywhere. "She's probably having dinner right now, should be having dinner right now with her family."

Would black look good? No, too formal. Maybe she'd do something green? Not her color. Well, blue was always the best to go with when in doubt, and everyone said blue looked great on her. Lapis was sure she had quite a few nice blue outfits she could go and wear.

"Maybe I can get her alone sometime this week to talk to her. I could get her squirming in no time if I did that, and fewer students watching and questioning if it's just the two of us. I can think of something," she mulled to herself, thinking of little ideas of what she could do to Peridot. The girl was far too innocent looking for her own good, innocence attracted wolves. Maybe Lapis was a wolf herself. She'd have to be careful, though. There were plenty of lines she didn't dare cross. Despite how much Lapis wanted to mess with the girl, she knew she'd have to be careful not to go too far or someone might get hurt.

A glance at the clock and Lapis quickly put on her chosen outfit, "I'm going to be late if I keep thinking like this," she muttered and hurried to finish dressing and take care of her dog quick before heading out of her house to meet up with her date at the bar. She could think about all of this when she got home and she could see Peridot tomorrow. But, right now, she had to focus on her date.


	3. Chapter 3

By the second week, the school had finally let go of the training wheels for their students. Enough class time spent getting to know your classmates, teachers or just going over the kinds of things they'd be taught. Instead, now the class was in full swing and the teachers were actually teaching the students finally. Honestly, Peridot was beyond ecstatic with it. If she had to do one more kindergarten level game just to learn that the boy next to her was named Billy and had been to Chicago once, she was going to scream.

She went to school to learn about the subjects she was studying, to learn about programming and history and math and so on, not what her classmate's favorite shows were or where her teacher grew up.

The only two classes she had that didn't take the entire first week before getting into gear was gym, which had started off the first day with the rigorous, brutal workouts, and art. By day two, Ms. Lazuli had already started lectures, and last Friday she sent the class off to their weekend with the assignment of brainstorming for their first project and had not-so-subtly hinted that they would need to explain why they drew what they drew.

Now it was Monday and Peridot still wasn't sure what she wanted to do. It wasn't like their first art project was going to be difficult by any means. It was just a sketch they were supposed to make that made use of shading and perspective. But, Lazuli wanted the sketch to be about something important to them for their first assignment.

Peridot couldn't say she really had too many things that were all that important to her. Percy was dear to her, but, she failed at an epic proportion when it came to drawing cats and dogs. But, she was at a bit of a loss today. She didn't even have an idea of what to do for her sketch, and they were supposed to start working on that today. Maybe she could ask Ms. Lazuli for an extension, claim she was busy the entire weekend helping her mother out in Empire City.

No, Peridot doubted that excuse would fly with her art teacher.

But, the girl was early enough to her first class that maybe she could try to figure something out while waiting for class to start. She could think of some reasons on the fly, pass any stuttering and stammer off as being shy. Not like the class was going to pay any real attention.

Reaching the door, she gave the knob a turn so she could enter, but found the door wouldn't budge. Pursing her lips, she tried again to no avail. Strange. Maybe she'd come too early and Ms. Lazuli hadn't unlocked the door yet. If that was the case, then Peridot had no choice but to wait for the teacher to arrive so she could take her seat in the back.

Truthfully… Peridot wasn't sure what to make of Ms. Lapis Lazuli just yet. Throughout the entire week, she felt like her teacher was watching her. It sent chills up her spine, but every time she'd look up, those blue eyes were either watching some other part of the class or skimming through papers on her desk. Then, whenever Lapis walked by, it felt like she would purposely move as close as she could to Peridot. Be it brushing past her so they just barely touched, or making sure to draw in close whenever she came to their table to scold Amethyst, and sometimes Peridot as well, for making a ruckus in class. When she did that, Peridot felt so terrifyingly small, like a mouse before a lion.

She wasn't sure if she was just imagining it or not, but it was driving Peridot mad. If Lapis was watching her during class and purposely penetrating her personal space without regard than Peridot wanted to know why . What did she ever do to make Lapis so… so… she didn't even know how to describe her teacher, that's how bad it was getting.

Maybe it was all in her head. She wanted it to all be in her head, that would be so much easier to handle. She could take some pills and things would feel more normal.

"Peridot? What are you doing here so early?"

As the saying goes; speak of the Devil and she shall appear. Lapis Lazuli was approaching her from down the hall, one hand carrying her travel mug, and on her opposite shoulder was the straps to one of those artists tote bags. She seemed genuinely puzzled by seeing the blonde outside the class door. But, Peridot was more puzzled by her teacher's appearance.

She had bags under her eyes, and her eyes themselves were slightly bloodshot. Sunglasses were perched atop her head as though she'd just pushed them up when she entered the school. Her hair wasn't as neatly combed as it usually was, and her outfit wasn't nearly as put together as she'd been last week. All in all, the teacher looked like a mess today.

"I got here early- are you okay, Ms. Lazuli?" Peridot cut herself off when her teacher got closer, she could see Lapis flinching at the bright lights of the hall.

There was a sarcastic smile now when she heard Peridots question. She pushed past the blonde and fished out the keys from her pocket to unlock the door. "Don't drink, kiddo. Especially when you've work in the morning " was all she answered with.

Oh, great. Her teacher might be a drunk. What a nice thing to learn.

"I'm underage," Peridot remarked with an eye roll as she stepped into the classroom as Ms. Lazuli turned on some of the lights. However, both stopped when they saw the current state the room was in.

"Jesus, fuck !" Lapis hissed as she saw the mess.

It was as though someone went to town with the supplies. Paint tubes and cans were strewn all over, clay left open and dried out all about the room. It looked like someone had even strewn paint around the room, caking the walls and floors and even the ceiling. Whatever order the room may have had the previous week was but a happy dream now. The room looked like a tornado had ripped through it.

Peridot blinked as she tentatively ran her finger over some dried up red paint, "This happens like once a year," she said to her teacher as she shrugged out of her own surprise and trudged to her usual seat. Lapis stared at her as though she had spoken in a different language, blank confusion on her face so Peridot decided to offer a more precise explanation. "At least once a year some students vandalize a room or so. Though, usually, they just steal the supplies from the art room to wreck havoc on some other corner of the school. First time I've heard the art room becoming the victim."

Last year someone had spray painted all over the gym different Pokemon badges and symbols. The year before it, someone drew dicks all over the hallway floors. Peridot was actually pretty sure that one was Amethyst. This year wasn't anything as 'creative' as its predecessors, but they made way more of a mess than the orderly vandalism of the previous years.

Lapis groaned as she took to her desk and sank into her chair, "It's going to take forever to try and clean this room up," she grumbled as she buried her face in her hand. "First yesterday and now today, can this week get any better?" it was a bitter remark as she sent a glare up to the ceiling, as though she was trying to stare down God, challenging him to just mess with her more.

A part of Peridot want to try and offer some form of help to her teacher, but the other, much larger part of her decided it'd be better and safer to just stay here in the back and try hope the teacher forgot she was there. It would only be a matter of time until other students came in anyways.

Though, she did feel a little sorry for her. Hungover and having to deal with coming to find her classroom was made into a mess. Well, at least for now Lapis was glaring at the desk rather than looking at Peridot, so, she could breathe a little easier for the time being.

As she had expected, students did start to come after a little bit. Taking up their usual tables and laughing amongst themselves. The volume of the growing class must have been torture because Lapis was holding onto her head as though it might explode. Peridot knew the feeling of an awful hangover all too well and couldn't help but wince as well as though she was the one suffering the headache too, even if she wasn't.

"Hey! P!" Amethyst greeted loudly as she entered the room and made a quick beeline to their table. Her eyes practically had stars in them as she took her seat, "Peri, you aren't going to believe what me and Pearl did this weekend!" she said quickly as she leaned towards her friend, the smile on her face was damn near infectious because Peridot couldn't help the way her lips quirked upwards when she saw it.

"What'd you guys do? Did you finally get her to a Mike Krol concert?"

"Nah! It was cooler than that!" Amethyst shook her head and grabbed a hold of Peridot by both her shoulders, "Peri, I got her to come to one of my wrestling matches, you know, the ones in the ring by the warehouse hosted by Mr. Smiley!"

Peridots eyes widened, "No way, Pearl hates going there! You're joking, you've got to be!"

"I'm telling the truth. It's hard to believe it myself." Amethyst was laughing as she began retelling the story of her weekend, "We were just chilling and chatting and I brought up that I'd need to prepare for my match later that day, and Pearl, she just tried to be casual as she said it but man was it so awkward-it was adorable- she went on how it seemed so important to me, and how I always had fun and that, well, she used a lot of words I don't even remember, you know how she is. But she basically asked me if she could come, and she came. It was amazing! I got to show off all my best moves to my best girl!"

Peridot was grinning wide by this point, "Really? Amethyst, I'm so happy for you!" They both knew that Amethyst had been trying to get Pearl to go to one of her matches for ages since Amethyst went to all of Pearls dance recitals. The fact that she went to one, and without Amethyst even asking her too, well that was a shocking but wonderful thing.

"Yeah. Damn, I'd never felt so alive in that ring until I heard Pearl cheering me on," Amethyst leaned back in her chair, she had a smile on her face, a soft, gentle smile. Her entire expression was that of love and adoration for her girlfriend, "She was so worried too when I was done with my match. Mother henning me the entire time and scolding me for the bruises I got. But, hey if she's worrying about me that just goes to show she cares about me so I can't get upset over a bit of nagging from her."

"You guys are just… something," the blonde murmured as she shook her head. They were nothing alike yet the two had complimented each other so perfectly. It was the kind of couple someone didn't see that often.

Amethyst gave a soft chuckle, "Heh… yeah."

The two fell silent as class began, Lapis did remarkably well with the bright lights and usual noise of the art room despite her hangover. With the schedule for the day scrawled out on the board, she wasted little time getting the class to work. Handing out large papers to sketch on, various pencils, erasers, and any other tools the students would need for their assignment for the day.

"You guys can start the actual drawing in a bit," the teacher said as she passed by the tables to hand out the supplies, "First, we're going to go through and you're each going to tell us what you're sketching and why. Remember, the sketch is of something important to you."

Oh, the moment that Peridot dreaded. She'd gotten distracted when she came into the room that she forgot to even think of the last minute idea for her sketch. She had nothing to say when the class discussion reached her. Being in the back had it's benefits and it's repercussions. She was either among the first or last during moments like these when everyone in the class had to speak and, statistically speaking, the class tended to remember the first and the last more clearly than the students between. Meaning that they were going to remember her fumbling and not having anything to show for today.

No, no, she still had time. There were about fifteen students before her, she could quickly think of something important and why it's important to her while everyone else was talking. It wasn't over yet.

Some student up in the front, Buck or something, said his sunglasses and Peridot zoned out on his reason for why. Another student had their car, one their cat. The class was going through this rather quickly, far faster than Peridot was able to try and process an idea of her own. It was funny how the brain went blank when you were desperate for an idea. There were far to many people saying cellphones so she couldn't do that.

They were up to her table now and Amethyst puffed her chest out in pride as she spoke, "My sketch is of a wrestling ring," she announced, "Cause, anyone who knows me know I love wrestling, so what better to show that then to sketch the ring?"

Lapis nodded at that, "I see, thank you, Amethyst," she said and her eyes locked onto Peridot next, "And you, Peridot? What are you sketching?"

Feeling as though the entire class was staring at her, Peridot squirmed in her seat as her nerves made her feel like she might throw up, "I… well, you see I'm sketching…" she didn't dare look up from her table, not at her classmates or even risk meeting gazes with Lapis. "I'm sketching my… my game consoles!" she said it so quickly that she felt her face drain and then all the blood rush to it. Hesitantly she looked up and Lapis was still staring at her, waiting for her to go on, "I mean, I like gaming," her voice found confidence as she spoke, "I like video games a lot, they're fun and they can have great stories. I really like my consoles too, so… I was going to sketch them."

Despite having grown more confident in her answer as she spoke her explanation, it all fell into a timid quiet note as Lapis continued to watch her. After what felt like forever, though it was more like a few seconds, the teacher gave a nod. Satisfied with Peridot's answer.

"Good, I look forward to your sketch."

With that, the class was free to start on their project and the rum fell into a moderate hum of noise as they chatted while they worked. Peridot couldn't help but feel like a weight was taken off her chest and she could breathe properly when she took her paper. She managed to get away with that despite being so painfully unprepared and no one seemed to have noticed.

The rest of the class time went with her trying her best on her sketch despite having absolutely no idea on what to do for it. So, she was doing her consoles, did she want to do them all or do it one or two. The suffering of having too many gaming consoles, she supposed. And of not preparing beforehand. But, once she got into the motion, it was easier to work on. Occasionally she'd glance over to Amethysts to see her progress or to chat with her a little bit.

As usual, she felt like she was being watched the entire class time, but each time she looked up there was no one looking at her. It was strange, but, she was doing better at ignoring it compared to last week.

Eventually, the class came to its end and the sketches were collected at the front. Being at the back of the room left Peridot and Amethyst among the last ones to drop their sketches off on Lazuli's desk and head to the door. However, before Peridot could scurry off into the freedom of the hall, she was stopped by her name being called.

"Peridot," Lapis said slowly, waiting for the short student to turn and face her. Had she done something wrong? She wasn't sure, Lapis' expression seemed friendly enough, but that didn't promise anything, "If you could, can I ask you to come back during your open period? I could use a hand in sorting out this mess of a room."

Oh, right. Lapis knew she had a free period in her schedule. Honestly, Peridot didn't necessarily want to give up her hour of peace and freedom, but, she couldn't bring it in her to refuse a teacher of a request.

"Oh, um, sure," Peridot mumbled, scratching at her neck as she looked away, "I can help, it's no problem."

Lapis almost seemed relieved when Peridot agreed, "Thank you. Really, thanks," she breathed, smiling at her student, "Now, you should be off. I'll see you later."

* * *

It had only been two hours since the first period, and it felt like two years.

Lapis was in misery and regret all day, though she was doing remarkably well at hiding it from the other teachers. She wished she hadn't drunk as much as she did the previous night because she was suffering sevenfold for it now. Her head was throbbing like someone was playing a never-ending drum solo inside her skull, the light hurt her eyes, and she was just so tired and sore. To make it even worse, the mess made of her art room didn't do anything to help her mood.

All the woman wanted was to go home, crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of the week. She was swearing off alcohol forever after this.

Though, her morning class wasn't all suffering. It was a pleasant surprise to find Peridot already at the door before she'd gotten to unlock it. A few moments of privacy with the student that she would have fully taken advantage of despite her hangover if the state of her classroom hadn't ruined that. Then watching her stammer to try and come up with a plausible subject for her sketch and try to think of a reasoning was amusing. Lapis had known right off the bat that Peridot had only just decided to use her gaming consoles as the focus on the sketch when she was called on. The woman had her fair share of last minute ideas during her years in art classes to recognize one when she saw one.

She was glad that Peridot didn't try to argue or refuse when Lapis asked her to come to the room during her free period to help clean up the mess it had become. She wasn't sure how well it would have gone if she tried to argue with Peridot to get her to join. So much easier if she did it of her own free will.

Yikes, almost sounded like she was trying to force Peridot into doing something illegal. Lapis was going to blame the alcohol for it.

A soft knock on the door and the slow sound of it creaking open alerted her of Peridot's entrance before the girl even stepped foot into the room. She could already feel her mood, soured by her hangover, lifting up when she saw that round face of hers, and quickly moved to stand up from her desk.

"Glad you could make it," Lapis said as she approached her student, "It wasn't too much a problem, was it?"

Peridot wasn't meeting her eyes, something she found amusing, though a bit disheartening, "I, it's all okay. Free period, remember? Didn't have any school work yet anyways."

"That's good! Can't let little old me cut into your academics."

Peridot mumbled something in return. It was clear that she wasn't exactly comfortable being one on one with Lapis, and that didn't bother the woman too much. She was just glad to have some time to talk to Peridot without prying eyes of her other students or fellow teachers. What better time to get to know the student then by having her help her in the classroom while everyone else was gone?

Smiling, Lapis clapped her hands together, "Well, let's get to work."

With that, they were off in the room, doing their best to clean up the mess that the vandalizer that made. Lapis tried to strike up some conversations, though Peridot didn't seem too much for talking. That didn't stop her from trying and more. Oh, she certainly did more than just try to talk to the blonde.

Every time she got near Peridot, Lapis would be sure to brush against her. If she handed her something then she'd purposely make them touch, she would linger far too close for far too long. Since there were shelves too high for Peridot, Lapis even hovered over her, stretched out with Peridot sometimes wedged between the wall and her to put away or take out whatever the blonde had been trying to reach.

Oh, she just loved the blush that Peridot got whenever she did that.

Her headache was still a problem though, and as time passed the pain only grew even worse. It was a hinderance and one Lapis could really do without.

"Are you okay, Miss?" Peridot asked as she paused in scrubbing away some glue that had been poured onto a window sill. "You kind of look like you're in pain."

Offering a smile, Lapis waved her off, "It's okay, just… hangover is a bitch." She'd be happy if Peridot left it alone and they could continue to work and her continue with her fun. But, it seemed like her student had other plans.

Worrying her lip between her teeth, Peridot hesitated a few moments before she spoke up again, "You know… I have some aspirin in my bag if that'll help," she offered.

Lapis perked up at hearing that, "Really? Yeah, that'll help a lot, thanks," she murmured as she followed Peridot up to her messenger bag, being handed the small bottle of pills. Taking a couple of pills, she tossed them in and swallowed them down, "Thanks a lot, Peri, this should help curb my headache some."

"Um, yeah… no problem," she mumbled, blushing a little when Lapis used the nickname instead of her whole name. As she put the medicine back in her bag, she spared a glance up at the teacher, "So… um… why did you get drunk last night? Teaching that rough?"

Lapis laughed at that, "Only just started teaching, don't think I have the right to become an alcoholic from it just yet," she grinned as she gathered up some materials that she'd been working on before the pills, "Just had a bad date last night, and between the choices of get drunk or listen to her obnoxious spiel any more, I chose the alcohol."

Peridot stared at her, clearly surprised that Lapis' date was another woman, to which the woman only smiled coyly at. After a few seconds of fumbling for words, Peridot followed Lapis who was now making her way into the supply closet to drop off the discarded art tools, "If I can ask… how was it a bad date? I mean… you're, well, you're not ugly." it was so awkward of a remark that Lapis almost dropped her boxes when she laughed at the mortification on Peridots face.

"Thanks, I'm glad you think I'm not ugly," she teased, moving to put the box on one of the shelves, "Honestly, it wasn't even me. My date just ended up being a bitch. She was nice last Monday when we had a date at the bar, but yesterday I guess she showed her true colors. You don't want to hear it."

"I kind of do, actually," Peridot answered quickly. Quickly enough to make Lapis raise a brow. Maybe she was just kind of in the mood for gossip, it didn't matter. Lapis didn't mind sharing her terrible date stories.

Shrugging, Lapis leaned against one of the shelves, "Where do I start?" she asked grinning, "First off, when she got to the bar she was late, I could forgive that. I'm not too nitpicky when it comes to timeliness, so long as I'm not waiting thirty minutes without a call. But, then she spent more time talking about things going on her phone or dissing the beer she was drinking. I guess she was just trying to act all sweet and nice the first date so she could score a second. She acted like she was the queen of the universe and that we should all bow to her, even complained that I didn't dress nice enough to have a date with her."

"Seriously?" Peridot gawked and shook her head, "That's just rude."

"I know! And guess what she did for a living."

Peridot raised a brow now, thinking it over, "Secretary?" she offered after a few seconds.

Lapis shook her head, "Nope," she answered, laughing a little, "She did a fat load of nothing. Said I got the bottom-barrel job being a teacher while she didn't even have a job. At least I was employed, but she claimed she didn't need a job. Not so long as she could leech off the money of her rich dad or whatever."

"Jesus, you certainly got the bottom of the barrel date is what it sounds like," Peridot whistled in disbelief.

"Yeah, and after that, I just ignored her in favor for a steady stream of whiskey, and you can see the results of that," Lapis pointed at herself with a little grin. As she spoke she could hear the bell go off, and a glance at her watch told that they had been in the room for both the initial hour and for the lunch hour. Oh well. Peridot must have noticed too, not that she looked annoyed by it at all, but Lapis got her attention back to her by leaning forward to close some distance between her and Peridot. She wanted to mess with her one last time before sending the blonde to her next class, there was a mischievous look in her eyes now. "What about you?" she asked.

Blinking, Peridot tilted her head as she took a wary step back, "Um… what do you mean?" she asked after a moment.

Lapis followed her with a step foward to keep the distance between them short, "I mean, how about you and the dating field?" she asked her, "You must have dated some people, right?"

"Of course! I've people lining up to go on a date with me!" Peridot boasted quickly, hopping back a few feet, giving a nervous grin while pointing a pair of finger guns at Lapis, "No man or woman can resist the charms of the Great and Lovable Peridot!"

They stood there for a few second, Lapis and Peridot just staring at each other in silence after that before Lapis finally broke out into soft laughter.

"You're too cute," Lapis snorted as she covered her mouth with a hand. Seriously, Peridot was just too much, from appearance to behavior, she was just so precious and innocent, Lapis just couldn't help but smile at that dorky, cheesy smile and finger guns pointed at her.

The blondes face heated up a bit as she brought a hand to the back of her own neck, averting her gaze in embarrassment, "Ah… thanks, heh," she mumbled back.

Peridot would have to get going soon, they both knew that. The next class starts in roughly five minutes and the senior wasn't one to miss or be late. But, Lapis wasn't all to ready to go and say bye to the little nerd and wait until tomorrow to see her again just yet. She wanted a little more time to talk and laugh and to cherish this bubbly feeling Peridot was causing in her chest. Well, there was one thing she could do to try and extend her time with Peridot a bit.

"Say, since I made you miss lunch to help me out, why don't I take you out somewhere after school to get some food?" Lapis offered with a smile, "My treat. It's the least I can do, you helped me out big time, and you didn't get to have lunch."

At hearing her offer, Peridot shrunk back, looking out of the supply closet of the art room nervously, as though there were eyes watching them and ears listening in on their conversation. "I… I don't know," she answered, "Is it even appropriate? I mean, you're my teacher, should you really be taking me out to lunch?"

"What's so wrong about it?" Lapis shot back innocently, tilting her head as she looked down at Peridot. "We're just going to eat, friends go out and eat all the time, so why should you and I catching a bite be anything different?"

"W-Well… I, it's just…"

Placing her hands on Peridots shoulders, Lapis forcefully, but still gently enough, turned the blonde around and gave her a light shove out of the closet, "I'll let you think it over. If you do decide to take me up on my offer than meet me here after classes, okay?" Lapis offered as she picked up Peridots bag and handed it to her after she got out of the supply room herself, "As for now, you should get your 'great and lovable' self off to your next class."

She couldn't help but love the embarrassed look on Peridots face when she used her own self-describing phrase against her. Though she may not say it out loud in case others might hear, the blue haired woman just found it adorable. Her smile never left as Peridot stammered a goodbye and hurried out of the art room.

Hopefully Peridot would take her up on her offer.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note:** Sorry for the delay; school's been kicking my butt so I had to focus more on that than on my fic since the end of the year is coming up. Been getting tests and quizes each week it feels like. But, here's the chapter and I hope you enjoy.

* * *

She wasn't going to go. Peridot was positive she wasn't going to go out for a late lunch with Lapis. It was unprofessional, it probably was crossing a few lines that she shouldn't be crossing. She had homework to do anyways, and could just as easily get food at home as she could with Lapis Lazuli. When the final bell rang, she'd just stop at her locker and then walk home, completely ignore the offer and not go visit Lapis in her room to accept said offer. She'd go home.

She wasn't going to go.

Peridot continued to repeat that in her head like a mantra, trying to ignore the idea of going out for lunch with Lapis, it was on an endless loop during her last few classes. When the final bell rang she cranked up the volume on it as she stopped by her locker, grabbed her homework, dropped off the books she didn't need. She wasn't going to go, she wasn't going to accept that offer, she couldn't accept that offer.

She said her goodbye to Amethyst who was going off with Pearl for a study date after school, said goodbye to a few other classmates she was friendly with. Hoisting her bag onto her shoulder, she walked down the hall. She was going to go home and start studying.

She knocked on the door to the art room before she even realized what she was doing. Her heart began racing as it dawned on her that this was not going straight home. That this was _what she said she wasn't doing_.

Before she could even consider turning and fleeing the scene, the door was pulled open and she was face to face with the taller, blue haired teacher who had a brilliant smile at seeing Peridot was there.

"Peridot, you actually came!" Lapis greeted as she moved over so that Peridot could enter the room, she did so though she swore that her body was moving on it's own without her brains consent because her brain was saying to refuse this and go, but her body was clearly not cooperating. Lapis was still smiling as she gently closed the door and moved to stand by Peridot, "I was a bit worried you might not take me up on my offer, to be honest."

"Actually that's just it; I can't take you up on it; it's highly inappropriate for a student and teacher to do this, even if it's just lunch, there's a professional line," was what she _wanted_ to say to Lapis.

"Oh, uh, no. Why wouldn't I?" was what Peridot actually said, though she was screaming in her head that even her own voice was betraying her.

Lapis seemed to smile even more at that and Peridot watched as she moved to grab the art bag she'd carried in and hoisted it over her shoulder much the same way Peridot had her messenger bag hanging on. "Well, we should get going then, right?" the teacher offered instead of answering as she moved to the door, opening it up for Peridot to leave through first. "I know a great place, and it's close by too, we can walk there if you want."

Trudging out, Peridot glanced up at Lapis with a bit of wary, "If I end up drugged and you harvest my organs, I want fifty percent of the profit."

Lapis laughed as she locked up the classroom, shaking her head, "Sorry, but it's thirty percent or nothing. I'll be the one doing all the work, you just have to lay unconscious for a few hours. Not fair if you get half the income from them."

"Excuse me? But it's my organs that will be taken and sold and my health at risk, I think I should be entitled to half the money you get for them."

"Sorry, Peri, take it or leave it."

It was surprising how easy it was to sort of relax, though that didn't mean she had her guard down and was all hunky dory and ready to let Lapis completely in her comfort zone. It was still less tense than she had expected. "Fine. Thirty percent," she surrendered to the terms.

"Good. Now I'll take that as your consent to give up your organs to my underground organ trafficking business," Lapis grinned as they walked and joked. At least, Peridot was ninety-percent sure she was joking.

They walked and thankfully there weren't too many students in the halls now. Less people to notice Peridot walking with a teacher and less people to question and whisper. She didn't know if she could handle people talking about her behind her back. Not that they probably didn't already.

"So, um, where are we going?" Had she already asked that? She wasn't sure.

Lapis smiled as she pushed the door to the outside open for Peridot, "Just a little cafe not far from school. It's my personal favorite, actually. I'm sure you'll love the place."

* * *

She should have expected, and at the same time would have no way to expect to be taken to a place such as this. It was a small, quaint little cafe. Lapis hadn't lied about it being close to the school, just about a few blocks of walking, give or take. It had an almost barn-like feel to it, if Peridot was being honest. Red walls, a couple of hay bales outside the door, the cafe even was called _The Barn_ , which she found interesting to be honest.

Lapis led her to a booth in the corner, away from the other customers much to her pleasure and the two slipped in, sitting across from each other. "If I can offer a recommendation," Lapis began, "There ham-and-turkey sandwich is pretty good."

Shrugging, Peridot glanced over to the rest of the rustic themed shop, "I'll keep that in mind," she shrugged.

Glancing over the menus on the table, they didn't wait to long as a waitress came a minute or two later. Placing their orders the woman trotted off again, leaving the two to be alone again as they waited on the food and drinks.

Smiling, Lapis leaned forward on the table, arms crossed as she placed her weight on them, "So, Peri," she had a little bit of light tone to her voice as she spoke, the smile had Peridot's hairs standing on end, it was too friendly for a teacher. "How are classes going for you so far? I know it's not far into school yet, but, it _is_ senior year for you. You must have your hands full."

Friendly conversation, Peridot could appreciate it, even if it still unnerved her seeing as Lapis was her teacher. But, she swallowed back her nerves to try and appear as comfortable as she could.

"Well, it's not that bad," Peridot admitted as she glanced over to the counter where she could see some of the employees working, "Scholarships and applications are going to be a pain later on, of course. A stress-fest themselves. Classes aren't too hard yet, though I'm certain Ms. Chalcedony is trying to kill us each day."

"Oh, you have Jasper as your gym teacher," there was a flash of… something in Lapis' eyes as she said the name. Did she know the behemoth of a woman?

What was she saying, _of course_ she knew her! They were both teachers at the same damn school, for pete's sake. Who ever heard of a teacher who didn't know their fellow faculty member in a school of this size? Lapis may be new, but, assuming she'd not know Jasper would be ridiculous. But, Peridot couldn't help but feel there was more to it, if that odd look Lapis had for a moment was any sign. But, she didn't dare press it.

"Yeah," she said instead with a nod, "The woman is a real slave driver in there, keeps pushing us to the point I don't think I could make it to my next class. My legs are always so stiff by the end of the days I have her as a teacher.

"That sounds like her. She never knows how to go easy on someone."

"So, um, how are you doing?" Peridot asked, feeling it was her turn to ask a question, "I mean, your first year teaching and all. Is it going as you'd expect?"

There was a warm smile, different from the previous one, when Peridot asked her that. It felt more genuine, if she had to put a name on it, "I love working here," Lapis answered, "I always enjoyed art, and getting to help others understand and work with it, it's great. Sure, some of my students aren't that great, as you saw this morning with the mess they made of my room, but, seeing the smiles on the others faces when they do something they enjoy. It makes the Hell that was college to get this degree worth it."

"I suppose. Honestly, I don't understand how you'd be able to do it. Teaching a class full of disruptive, immature students," Peridot leaned back as the waitress came over, giving them their coffees and informing them that their food would be out shortly. "I mean, it can't be easy. High schoolers aren't exactly the pinnacle of maturity and all that."

"I suppose so, honestly a lot of you guys have the behavior of a five year old," Lapis laughed a little as she picked up her cup, cradling it in her hands, "But, when you're passionate about something, things like that don't matter much. Art's what I'm passionate about. That and swimming."

"Swimming?" Peridot repeated curiously.

Taking a sip of her drink, Lapis nodded and put her cup down. "Yeah, swimming. I was captain of my team in high school and college. Probably would have tried going into professional swimming, or get a job involving that, if I wasn't so into art. Maybe I could have gone to the Olympics."

"You in the Olympics, heh, well I mean that'd be a reason to watch it I guess." The words came out before Peridot even realized what she was saying. When she realized what she'd said a moment too late, her face flushed and she looked away so fast she might as well have given herself whiplash.

But, Lapis was laughing. Hand over her mouth and an easy, amused smile on her face. "Will you be watching for the swimming or for the swimsuits?" she teased, which only served to make Peridot go redder. Laughing a bit more, Lapis shook her head, "I'm teasing you, relax. I'm not going to judge you if that's the case, I'd be flattered more than anything."

"You're insufferable," Peridot groaned, hiding her face behind her hands.

"Maybe," Lapis hummed, drawing her finger around the rim of her cup, "But, if I'm really so insufferable, then why're you still here?"

Thankfully, Peridot was saved from having to answer by the arrival of their food. A simple bowl of soup Lapis, and the sandwich that she had recommended for Peridot. The teacher offered a quick thanks to the waitress as she walked away and pulled her bowl closer to herself so as to eat.

"Thanks again, by the way," Lapis mumbled as she dipped her spoon into her soup and took her first bite. Peridot glanced up at her curiously, and Lapis looked away, "Like I said, I didn't expect you to actually take me on my offer. So, thank you. It means a lot.. You see, I kind of wanted to get to know you better, so being given this chance, well, I'm glad."

What was with this woman and being able to make Peridot blush so easily? Even more importantly, why would she want to get to know her better? Peridot was just another student to her, right? Oh, God, her mind was just racing and turning itself over trying to figure out the reason and meaning behind Lapis' words. "I… um… thank you?" the words stumbled out nervously.

"Damn, you're just adorable when you blush like that," Lapis was laughing again, teeth shown and eyes closed. It made her blush more, though even Peridot wasn't sure if it was from the comment or from how Lapis looked while laughing, that look of playfulness.

God, this was confusing.

"I'm not cute," she grumbled as she bit angrily into her sandwich to try and distract herself.

Lapis smiled at that, "Sure you're not," she was teasing her was far too familiar and friendly than a teacher should be treating their student. Did Lapis do this to everyone? "Honestly, you look like an angry slice of pie right now, a cute one," she added with a teasing smile.

"Oh shut up!"

Lapis smiled, shaking her head as she continued to sip her soup.

The rest of their late lunch consisted of small talk. Well, if one could call it small talk. Lapis spent a bit of time teasing and, Peridot was sure it was on purpose, flustering the senior. It was horrible, but even Peridot had to admit that it was a bit fun. Talking to Lapis outside of class it was strange, but almost exhilarating. Like she was doing something she shouldn't be doing.

What was she talking about, she _was_ doing something she shouldn't be doing. There was a line of professionalism between a student and teacher. A student and teacher shouldn't be getting lunch together or talking like this.

It was confusing.

When it came time to leave, Peridot had intended to pay for her meal, and reaching for her wallet, she had been stopped by a cool hand over her own and blue eyes staring right at her.

"I told you, didn't I?" Lapis said, waving her credit card in front of Peridot and smiling easily, "It's my treat."

Peridot nodded mutely as she withdrew her hand, feeling heat prickle at her face as Lapis called over a waitress and handed her the credit card and bill. It didn't take long for the waitress to return and the two gathered their things to head back.

They didn't need to, but Lapis and Peridot walked back to the school together. Lapis' car was parked there and Peridot had to go that way to get home anyways.

"Do you want a ride home?" Lapis asked as she pulled her keys out of her bag and glancing at Peridot who was still at her side, "It won't be a problem at all for me to drive you to home, you know."

Peridot quickly shook her head at the offer, "No, I'm good. Thank you, though." she declined. She felt like she needed to get some space between her and Lapis, her thoughts were already starting to get confusing as could be in regards to her teacher. Any more time and she didn't want to think of what might happen.

The teacher frowned but relented, "Well, okay," she surrendered as she started towards her car, "But, be safe on your way home, okay? Wouldn't want to hear one of my students got into some accident on her way home."

"I always am, so don't worry." Peridot assured her and scratched at the back of her neck, "Um, thanks for lunch, and not taking and selling my organs."

Lapis laughed a little, "Don't hold your breath, I may take your liver yet." she joked as she opened her car door, "I'll see you tomorrow, Peri. Have a good night."

She waved goodbye to her, mumbling back a goodbye before turning on her heel and heading home. As she walked, she could hear the engine start of a car and hurried her steps as she heard, rather than saw, Lapis pull out of the parking lot and head home herself. Peridot was eager to get home and try and sort everything out. God, she wasn't sure how she'd be able to face Lapis every day for the next few days in class after today.


	5. Chapter 5

Laying in her bed, Peridot couldn't get the thoughts of lunch out of her head.

Or, more specifically. She couldn't get Lapis Lazuli out of her head.

Laying on her bed, the blonde held her rather large alien plush close as she let the events of the day play over in her head for the umpteenth time. She'd helped Ms. Lazuli clean up her classroom, she'd gone through the rest of her class day and accepted her offer for lunch. That should have been it but, it wasn't.

She felt far more nervous and anxious during the meal than she should have, though the food was good, the cafe was comfortable, nothing fancy or over the top, but had an easy air to it. They'd joked a bit, had some small talk, Lapis called her cute. At that, Peridot blushed remembering it. A part of her couldn't help but shake that Lapis may have been _flirting_ with her. Hah. Wishful thinking.

She almost fell off her bed with how quickly she sat up when that crossed her mind. Wishful thinking? What, no, why would she want Lapis to be flirting with her? That was ridiculous!

"Besides, it's not like she'd actually be flirting. She was just being… friendly. In a weird way," Peridot grumbled to herself as she settled back down. Honestly, she didn't understand her art teacher at all. Lapis Lazuli was like a puzzle she couldn't figure out for the life of her. She always seemed to be watching,

" _I kind of wanted to get to know you better."_

She buried her face in her alien, "Why would you want to try and get to know me better?" she muttered to herself as she rolled over on her bed. Her face was heating up as she thought about Lapis again.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she actually was flirting with her. It wasn't like Peridot could say anyone's done that to her before. Except for Amethyst, but, Amethyst didn't count in her books, she'd flirt with anyone, it was how she was. But Lapis, why did she make her feel so nervous with just a look or word? Just thinking about her had her heart speeding up.

The blonde groaned as she once again pressed her face into her alien plush, "What am I going to do?" she asked her green friend. There wasn't much she could do when she had a class with her every day, and she doubted that Lapis was going to ease off on how she acted around her. Would it really be all that bad if she was friends with a teacher? Apart from being called a teacher's pet. But, really, it wasn't like people didn't call her that occasionally anyways. Besides, despite her nature, Lapis was kind of nice, she was pretty, too.

Maybe she could survive the rest of this year with Lapis each morning. It wouldn't be _that_ bad, right?

Closing her eyes, she felt herself completely drained from trying to sort out her mind and found herself starting to doze off as she curled up on her bed holding onto her alien plush.

* * *

She was forced awake by the sudden, intrusive blaring of her phone. Squinting around her room, she found it had already darkened drastically, and a glance at her clock told her that it was already eight at night. Shit, she'd slept longer than intended, she hadn't even intended to sleep in the first place!

Fumbling to fix her glasses, she grabbed her phone from her bed and pressed answer before she even looked at who was calling.

"Hello, Peridot Olivine speaking, how can I help you?" she answered.

" _Hello, Peridot,"_ the voice on the other end was calm, composed and regal. The all too familiar, uncaring tone, it sent chills down her spine. Why was she calling, and so late in the night at that?

Swallowing, Peridot found herself sitting up straighter just out of habit, "Hello, mother. Was there something you needed?"

" _It's been a few weeks, can't a woman see how her daughter is doing?"_ she almost sounded like she actually cared. Not that Peridot was fooled. " _School's started, right? Have you been doing well in your classes?"_

Of course, she was just making sure that Peridot wasn't already failing anything. Couldn't have her one and only daughter disappoint her like that. "It's a bit early to tell, only the second week-"

" _You should know by now if you're going to be able to pass these classes or not, Peridot."_

She flinched at the sudden harsh tone and found herself nodding, "R-right," she mumbled, "Classes are, they're going well. I shouldn't have any problem passing them. They seem like they might be challenging, but that's a good thing."

She could hear keyboards tapping. Was her mother at work right now? Of course, she was, when was she _not_ at work?

" _That's good. In that case, you had best not disappoint me."_

Peridot nodded quietly at that and swallowed back the nerves that filled her up, making her stomach churn and head light, "Has anything new happened with the company?" she asked hoping to keep the conversation off of herself. She didn't like when her mother made the focus on the talk about Peridot, it usually dissolved into everything Peridot did wrong.

" _Everything is the same. It feels like I have idiots working for me if I'm to be perfectly honest. The only silver lining is that I can fire most of them once you graduate high school and have you replace them all."_ It was probably the closest to a compliment Peridot was going to be getting. " _I've also gotten myself a new assistant."_

"Oh?" Well, that was new, "Did something happen to the last one?"

" _She was useless, what do you think happened to her?"_ Her mother snapped, " _My new one is much better. She does everything perfectly and obedient. She's very intelligent, too, graduated both high school and college early, was a valedictorian, in fact, perfect GPA, she was highly recommended. Frankly, she's leagues ahead of the one I fired. Actually, she's not all that much older than you."_

"Oh? How great," of course she'd have to be 'perfect' if she was to work right under Diane Diamante Olivine, her mother never accepted anything less. "Well, I do hope she can live up to your expectations." For both her mother and her assistant's sake.

" _Oh, she has met and surpassed them, you might learn a thing or two from her,"_ was the response.

"Right." She glanced at the window, watching the cars pass and the streetlights flicker, "Hey, mom, I've got to go. I still have some studying to do. But, thanks for calling." Studying was her best and most used excuse when she wanted to stop talking to her mother, there was no way the woman would know if Peridot was telling the truth or not, and she would always back off so her daughter could ensure a perfect GPA.

" _Good. Focus on your studies, I don't want to find that your grades are slipping because you've been messing around rather than doing your work."_

"Don't worry, I'll pass everything this year like last year," Peridot answered and muttered a final goodbye before falling onto her back on her bed. Phone still in hand as she stared up at her ceiling.

Well… that was one way to wake up. At least her mom didn't yell or anything. She supposed it was too early in the year for that, her mom didn't have anything too bothersome to yell at Peridot for just yet. Thank God.

Today just wasn't her day, was it?

Well, she probably should go and do her homework before she went off to bed for the night. Her mother would skin her if she already started skipping out on homework so early into the year.


	6. Chapter 6

Kicking off her shoes at the door and dropping her tote art bag of papers and art supplies next to the coat rack, Lapis was smiling ear to ear as she stepped into her house. She could feel her chest still bubbling from earlier. Stretching her back and tossing her keys onto the counter as she strode past the kitchen, the teacher wasted little time flopping onto the couch and letting out a breathy laugh as the events of the day played again and again like a video on loop in her mind. Despite the less than favorable way it started, with the hangover and wreckage her classroom was in, (she was going to kill whoever trashed the art room, mark her words), the teacher could say for sure that the rest of the day after school had ended had been amazing.

If the woman was to be completely honest; it had been a total surprise, though far from an unpleasant one, when Peridot had shown up at her classroom door after school ended. The woman had been all but certain that her student was going to decline her offer, it was a logical thing to do considering who they were, and had been ready to just head on home and heat something up for a small meal rather than head out to eat with someone. But, oh how glad she was when the tiny blonde had shown up and taken her up on offer for lunch.

She'd taken her to The Barn , one of Lapis' favorite, if not the favorite, places to go and eat. The place was close to school, so Lapis had been eating there quite often since she'd moved to Beach City after college. Since it was already a bit past three, and most people had already had lunch, there weren't too many people in the cafe. They'd ordered their drinks and food; Peridot even took Lapis up on her suggestion on what to eat, and they spent the time in there chatting in there as they waited and ate.

Though she doubted that Peridot had picked up on most of the flirting Lapis sent her way, she was sure that the blonde understood at least some of it if her body language and blushes were any sorts of a hint.

God, she was just adorable when her face turned up all red like that whenever Lapis said something, like how she was cute, or just did some playful teasing. Lapis loved the feeling she got deep inside knowing that she was the reason Peridots face was flushed and why she was squirming where she sat. It was sent electricity coursing through her a thrill of excitement up her spine.

Sure, she could admit that this probably wasn't the best kind of thing for a teacher to be thinking when it comes to her student. Oh, who was Lapis kidding? This was exactly the kinds of thoughts a teacher shouldn't have for her students. If anyone caught onto what Lapis was doing, if another teacher, or even worse, the principal herself found out then Lapis could very well lose her job for the unprofessionalism and indecency of her actions. Honestly, she wouldn't put it past the school board to blow this whole thing out of proportion and make it seem more than what it actually is. It was the sort of thing people did if they didn't like what was happening. But, well, when did the risks ever really stop Lapis from doing something she wanted to do?

"It's not like I'm doing anything bad here," Lapis mused to herself as she moved on the couch to lay down, reaching for the remote to turn on the TV. The channel was still on the same one she'd left it at last night, and it was playing some documentary with some British guy talking about foxes. Lapis watched the show with mild interest, though still thinking on the topic at hand. "When's a little playful teasing ever hurt anyone? Rose jokes with the students all the time, and no one's fired her for having students crushing on her."

Besides, it's not like she intended to date Peridot or have some kind of illicit affair with her like something out of a trashy romance novel. All Lapis wanted to do was mess around with the girl, tease her and maybe flirt with her a bit. Having lunch was something friends did all the time. Regardless of that; they were both consenting adults here and able to make choices for themselves. No one was being forced or coerced into something they didn't want to do.

Not that Lapis would particularly mind dating Peridot. The girl was cute, and she was pretty fun to be around, and it wasn't like the age gap was that big as far as she was concerned. The gap between her parents' was twice that of her and Peridot, and she and Jasper had been a four-year difference, Hell, Lapis had technically been a minor when they got together and their relationship lasted a long while. A lot longer than it should have been, but the ages of them had never been one of the problems they had between them. Unlike Lapis when she started dating Jasper; Peridot was a legal adult. So, it wasn't like Lapis would be dating someone underage if they did end up in a relationship. Not that Lapis had any desire to be in a relationship with Peridot, or in a relationship with anyone at all at the moment. Dates though were something she was open to.

Actually, her lunch date with Peridot had been one of the better ones she'd had in a good while. Sure, she probably shouldn't call it a date , but, it had felt like one. A pretty damn good one if Lapis was being honest. It was adorable how Peridot would sometimes slip into a comfort around her, but at the next moment be all anxious and nervous at the slightest smile or remark from Lapis. The woman hadn't lied when she told Peridot that she was cute.

She almost felt envious of whoever wound up being lucky enough to date the girl.

"Eh, well, what can you do about it?" She told herself with a shrug as she got comfortable on the couch and tried to focus on the documentary on the TV some more. It was almost interesting.

If Peridot found someone to call her own and was happy with that someone, then Lapis would back off. She'd have to, even if she didn't particularly want to stop what she'd come to enjoy. She wasn't into the business of destroying relationships. That was crossing a line that she had no interest in doing.

As though sensing her owners growing agitation at the current train of thoughts, Malachite let out a loud bark as she jumped onto the couch. Laying down with the majority of her weight on Lapis' chest, the dog panted and looked up at her with dark, loving eyes. It was enough to bring a smile to Lapis' face as she began scratching her pet behind the ears and giving her a loving rub down.

"Hey there, Mala." Lapis greeted her pet who barked in return, letting out a bit of cooing and 'who's a good girl?' to the large beast who had her pinned to the couch as she snuggled up to the teacher.

With how big she was, it was hard to believe that Malachite was just only a little over a year old. Just a year ago and Lapis could carry her beloved dog in her arms with ease. She could still remember with clarity when she had gotten the bullmastiff who had still been a puppy, and so, so much smaller at the time.

She had been in her final year of college, she and Jasper had still been living together with her girlfriend making an hour commute between work and home each day for her job at the high school as a gym teacher. It had been one of the rare pleasant days between them; the sun was shining, the weather was nice and they hadn't had a fight at all yet. No screaming matches, no insults, swears or hits. In fact, Jasper had made Lapis breakfast, they had gone out for lunch together after she'd finished her classes. An actual date, they rarely went on dates anymore. And now they were just now wandering around the shopping district, holding hands as they walked down the bustling city street.

"Okay, Jasper, are you going to tell me what this surprise of yours is?" Lapis asked as she walked with her girlfriend.

The large woman only grinned and shook her head, tugging Lapis forward along with her so the blue haired student wouldn't fall behind. Her grip was a bit tight, but, that was usual for Jasper, she always held onto things tightly. It was still gentle compared to how she could and had gripped Lapis before.

They continued to walk for a few more minutes before Jasper came to a halt in front of a small shop. She'd stopped so suddenly that Lapis almost bumped into her and had to take a moment to regain her balance at that. The glare she gave Jasper lacked any heat to it and fell quickly at the eager grin that the older woman had on her face as she stared at the store they had stopped at. Curious, Lapis turned her head to look up at it and felt confusion swirl up inside her.

"An animal shelter?" she repeated and glanced at Jasper, "What are we doing here?" She wasn't sure what the expect from Jasper, her reasons could be vast.

"What do you think we're doing here?" Jasper responded as she tugged Lapis alongside her as she marched into the building. The bell at the door jingled as they walked in and a woman at the desk gave a quick greeting to them which Jasper ignored but Lapis at least gave a smile to her in return.

She let herself be dragged through the place, passing kennels and kennels until Jasper once again came to a sudden stop at one batch of kennels near the back of the place. She let go of Lapis hand, which had begun to hurt a bit from her strong grip. Lapis subtly massaged it as Jasper held an arm out to the kennels in front of them. "Alright, Lapis, take your pick," she declared loudly, earning a few barks in response through the place.

Lapis stared at her and then at the puppies in front of her, before looking back up at Jasper in pure confusion. "Pick one…?" she repeated, not sure if she was understanding her quite right, "Jasper, are you serious, we're getting a pet?" did their apartment even allow pets?

There was a flash of annoyance in Jasper's eyes, and Lapis knew she was starting to run the woman's patience thin, "Do I have to spell it out for you?" she growled, "Pick a damn pup already!"

With that, Lapis turned to the kennels, kneeling down on the floor as she found herself staring at all the small bundles of fur, eager and hopeful to be picked that day. It had her heart swell, whose wouldn't when faced with so many puppies in need of a home? A part of her wanted to pick them all, but, she knew that she couldn't. She and Jasper couldn't afford to take care of an entire litter of puppies, Hell, she wasn't sure if they could afford and manage just one. But, Jasper wanted them to get a dog it seemed, and she was being nice enough to let Lapis be the one to pick it out.

She wasn't sure what breed they were, but, that didn't matter to her. Her eyes roved through the puppies before finding one in the corner, not quite up at the front begging for attention like the others. It wasn't a runt, and maybe it was just a bit shy. She watched the puppy growl at the others if they came near and then nodded her head.

"That one," Lapis pointed to the puppy in the corner.

"You sure?" Jasper asked, crouching down beside her to watch the puppy when Lapis nodded, she shrugged and got up, presumably to grab an employee so they could take the puppy home.

Jasper had handled all the paperwork and other bits of business required before they could take the dog home, but, when they got home they had a small dog running around the house eager to explore. The employees had said that the dog was a girl, and on the way home the couple had agreed to name her Malachite.

When they got the dog, Lapis had thought they were going to share the responsibilities. They'd take turns feeding her, bathing her, would take turns cleaning up after her and taking her for walks. But, it ended up being Lapis who did everything, just like always. Once in awhile Jasper would feed Malachite or take her for a walk, but, the responsibility fell on Lapis most days. It irritated her, sure, but Lapis had quickly grown attached to her new dog, and honestly adored the puppy.

Whenever Lapis would ask for help, ask Jasper to do something, anything, she'd just get a snap of a reply. About how she spent all day at work and deserved to relax and wind down instead of being saddled with more work. Completely ignoring that Lapis was spending most of her time at work or in college and was just as stressed as her girlfriend.

When things inevitably blew up between them for the last time, and Lapis decided she was done dealing with Jasper and her anger and lashing outs, Lapis packed her bags and left. She'd moved in with a college friend who was majoring in theater, though his acting and general behavior was a bit… melodramatic. He was still a pretty nice guy. He let her be his roommate for the rest of her college term, didn't mind Malachite either. She spent the past months with him until she'd moved to Beach City after being accepted as a new art teacher at the local high school. Sure, she was well aware she was going to be work with Jasper, but, she figured that all the months broken up would have been enough time for Jasper to get over it.

Clearly, it hadn't.

She felt her stomach churning. Her relationship with Jasper had been the only serious relationship she'd ever had in her life. The woman was her first girlfriend and they had dated for almost seven years. All things considered, Lapis was the one who should be having a tough time letting it all go, at least more so than Jasper. It had been years of Hell, for both of them. Thinking about it left a foul taste in her mouth even to this day.

That was probably why she enjoyed being with Peridot so much. The small girl was as different from Jasper as one could be. She was harmless and rather vulnerable in the grand scheme of things, whereas Jasper had been aggressive, dominating and dangerous. Peridot was the last person who'd be any sort of threat or danger, especially to Lapis. She was someone that Lapis could actually let her guard down without worry.

Heaving a sigh, the woman pushed herself up, nudging Malachite to move off of her, "I should probably start work for tomorrow," she mused to herself, though she was thinking of what she could do and say to Peridot tomorrow. Maybe she could get the student to spend time with her during her free period again. More time with the shorty was always welcome as far as Lapis was concerned. Well, she'd just have to wait for tomorrow and see.


	7. Chapter 7

To say that Lapis was having a great day would be an understatement. Sure, she was still in rather high spirits after lunch yesterday with Peridot, but today and all its events just served to make her spirits soar even higher.

First of all; no Jasper. Apparently, the gym teacher had come down with something and wasn't going to be at school today and maybe tomorrow. That alone had her grinning like crazy when she heard the news; less Jasper the better. Apart from that, she'd finally finished personalizing the art room, something she'd honestly been procrastinating since day one after getting the job. The students were also working on their first major project (Splatter paint, they seemed to love that, and she didn't blame them. Splatter art was freaking fun as far as she was concerned) and everyone was busy discussing their ideas and brainstorming during class. Honestly, the room was such an optimistic place during class, Lapis loved it.

Sure, she didn't get to talk much with Peridot during class, her blonde had been running late and barely made it to class before the bell rang, and it would have raised suspicions if she started talking to her in the middle of class or while her friend Amethyst was there.

But, she did get a hold of Peridot before the girl left the room, she had actually lingered behind a bit so that she was the last one out of the room. Lapis was pretty sure she did it so they could talk in private.

They didn't speak much; Peridot had a class to get to and all. All they got to do was a hello, a goodbye, and Lapis had invited her to come over to the art room during her free period again. Peridot had agreed, and when she smiled softly, a faint blush on her cheeks as she said 'okay', Lapis could feel her heart flutter a little bit. Gosh, the girl was too cute, it was almost too much.

She had a few hours to wait before she'd see Peridot again, and with no classes to occupy her until after lunch, Lapis had the morning to herself.

The blue haired teacher alternated between fixing up the art room; cleaning up any messes that may remain, reorganizing papers, supplies and paint cans and making trips to the faculty lounge to refill her travel mug of coffee or just to rest on their surprisingly soft couch and make small talk with some of the other faculty members in the room at the time. She'd straighten out the paintings she'd brought into her classroom too, make sure they were all straight and that there weren't any smudges to be found.

It wasn't until Peridots free period hit that Lapis had realized she was _jittery_. That had taken her by surprise. Why was she so excited for Peridot to come that she was practically nervous? Sure, she'd taken a real shine to the student, but, she didn't think she would get this excited over their chats and time together.

Before Lapis could ponder on it any longer, the door creaked open and the blonde in question stepped in quietly.

"Hi, I'm, um, I'm here," Peridot greeted awkwardly as she set her backpack on one of the tables.

As soon as the door shut and she saw that head of blonde hair and crooked glasses, a smile found its way to Lapis face, "Glad for it," Lapis took quick and long strides, reaching Peridot quickly, "So, how were classes this morning?" she asked her as she sat up on the table, still smiling at Peridot, hands on her cheeks as she watched in genuine curiosity and interest.

Peridot game a tentative smile as she tugged at the drawstrings of her hoodie, that little fidget of hers was kind of cute, "Well, they were boring as usual. At least gym wasn't that hard with a substitute teacher and all that. We just played dodgeball," she explained, slowly climbing up to take a seat by Lapis on the table, the teacher listening intently as she spoke, eyes not leaving her face, "Really, classes were as they usually are, nothing new to say."

"I heard Jasper wasn't here today. Glad that it's on a day you have her, don't want her going off and breaking you in class, now do I?" That honestly made her even more happy that Jasper was absent from school today. Everyone knew how brutal her classes were. So seeing her dear little Peridot getting a break from that brutal gym regiment that Jasper ran made her mood even better than it already was.

Peridot blushed and smiled, looking away quickly to avoid locking gazes with Lapis.

"So, um… I was meaning to ask, but didn't really get a chance to in class, since I was, you know," Peridot murmured, still a bit embarrassed at having arrived when she did this morning and stayed looking away from Lapis as she surveyed the room, "But, where did you get all these paintings you put up? They're all amazing."

Well, now it was Lapis' turn to blush a little bit in some minor embarrassment. She'd brought the paintings into making the classroom feel more personalized like it really was _her_ room. But as of yet no one but Peridot had even commented upon the decorations. Scratching at the back of her neck, she gave Peridot a sheepish smile, "Actually, all the paintings I brought in today are mine," she answered as brought her hand back down and leaned back. "As in, I painted them. But, I'm glad you think they're great."

The blonde whipped her head around so quickly Lapis wouldn't be surprised if she got whiplash. Her eyes were wide and mouth parted open in a silent awe. "You serious?" she asked, and when Lapis nodded, the student began surveying the paintings yet again, "That's amazing! These look like they were done by some big name professional! You're an amazing artist, Lazuli!"

Well, if she hadn't been a bit pink before, Lapis was certainly blushing red now. Sure, she had people compliment her paintings before, it was certainly nothing new for the young teacher. Classmates and professors back in college and high school would tell her she was a natural at it. Hell, she'd even put some of her paintings in a local art show back in college and had complete strangers praise her work among the others that were being displayed. So, it wasn't as though Lapis had never gotten a good word about her art before.

But, the way that Peridot praised her… it was so _genuine_ and not to mention so enthusiastic you'd think that Lapis did something to surpass Michelangelo.

"Th… thank you," Lapis mumbled, turning her head so that Peridot wouldn't see her bright blush. But, before she could even say anything, Peridot had begun moving around the room, edging closer to the paintings to examine them in better detail, going from artwork to artwork as though she were some critique. Her huge smile never left her face.

It felt like an eternity before Peridot returned to the table Lapis sat at, "Seriously, Lazuli. What are you doing teaching art when you could be selling it?"

Her blush had toned down considerably and now Lapis was able to look at Peridot again, a teasing smile up as she answered her question, "Well, I dunno, it's like selling my babies, you know? And what parent would sell their own child?" she asked and as Peridot opened her mouth to answer, she quickly shook her head, "No. Nope. Don't answer that."

"You must really love painting," Peridot said, her voice so quiet it was like they were in church.

"Come on, didn't I already say that I do during our lunch yesterday?"

"True."

"So, why are you in art anyways?" Lapis asked as she tilted her head, "Not to sound rude, but, by the sounds of it, you're pretty deep in the sciences and computer things."

Peridot looked away, drawing her hands together to fiddle with her fingers, "Well, about that," she gave a small laugh as she shook her head, "You're not wrong. Computers are my thing, My future is pretty much set in stone that I'm supposed to be a programmer. But, art is just… it's relaxing and fun, you know? It's fun to just sit down and draw, even if it's crappy, it helps ease the stress I get from everything else in the world."

The teacher leaned closer to Peridot, "Oh? You draw?" She asked with a bit of a smile, "I'd love to see some of your drawings some day."

"I… um, but you will!" Peridot said quickly, shaking her head as she spoke, seemingly embarrassed to let someone see the drawings she'd done outside of class, "You are my teacher and all, so of course you're going to get my assignments."

For some reason, it kind of hurt a little at Peridot reaffirming that she was her teacher. But, Lapis chose to shrug that off, "Well, that's different," she pointed out, "your drawings in this class are for class. What you draw at home, without any requirements behind it, those are vastly different and far more interesting. At least I think so."

The blonde sank where she sat, "I mean… they aren't anywhere near as good as yours."

"Now that's just subjective," Lapis shook her head but was still smiling at her, "But, if you really don't want to show me, I won't force you to hand them over. I can understand having drawings you don't want anyone to see," she was like that a lot in high school and the first half of college. She'd only ever let the teacher see her work or a select few. She couldn't say she had the same reasons for doing so as Peridot, but, she could understand the feeling.

What she got in return was a small, grateful smile. Lapis could feel her chest warm up considerably and her heart turn to some weird goop like substance at that.

Lapis looked at her, and then let her eyes settle on the clock above the door. They still had well over an hour and a half before Peridot would need to be in class again. There was still plenty of time for them to just hang out and talk. And Lapis was growing to love talking to this blonde girl more and more with each word and sentence.

Her mind was made up and Lapis stood up from her seat and spun on her heel to face Peridot. "How about I make you a proposition," Lapis said, holding a hand out to her student, smiling innocently at her, "I take you out to lunch again and in exchange, we get to keep on chatting with a bit more privacy to it. I can show you some of my sketches too if you'd like to see more of my work."

Peridot seemed to hesitate, staring at her hand and then looking up at Lapis' expression and her patient smile. The girl swallowed as she glanced at the door, taking a moment before she took the offering hand, "Well… when you're offering to show me more of your art, I can't really say no," she said in a lighthearted fashion.

"Good to know I can bribe you with my art," Lapis laughed as she pulled Peridot from her seat and grabbed both their bags, "Come on, we better hurry if we want to get to _The Barn_ before the lunch rush gets there."

* * *

 **Authors Note:** Well, this felt a bit short, but still, I hope you guys enjoy watching Lapis slowly fall in love with her small blonde nerd.


	8. Chapter 8

A couple of weeks had passed since. It had become a routine of sorts for Lapis to take Peridot out to _The Barn_ for lunch every day at school. They'd go out and chat about just about anything. They would ask each other what the other the other was up to lately, if they were having fun this year, if anything new had happened and just how they were doing. Sometimes they'd start talking about art, or music or even _Camp Pining Hearts_. The two would gush and fangirl over what they loved, and rave and rant over what they hated. They had found they shared a hate for the shows leading couple, though they did have disagreeing opinions on Paulette in general. Peridot just hated her, while Lapis had thought that there was potential, but the shows writers just never put any of her potential to good use.

Lapis loved seeing Peridot get so passionate in her spiel for why Percy and Pierre were perfect together. It was funny. Though sometimes she had to quiet the girl down else they get kicked out from their favorite cafe.

The blue haired woman was finding she was looking forward to these lunches more and more. They were becoming the highlights of her days. She'd found herself growing closer and closer to Peridot as well. She listened to the girls problems, and in return Peridot listened to her rant about her crappy days. Her trust had gotten to the point that Lapis had shown Peridot her private sketchbook, full of drawings and artworks so personal to her that Lapis didn't want anyone seeing. Nothing had even prompted her to do so; she'd just decided that she wanted Peridot to see them and so she brought it to lunch one time and showed it to her, acted like she did when she showed Peridot any other sketchbook. The girl fawned over her sketches and would stare at her with starry eyes at being shown pieces her student would repeatedly tell her were beautiful and amazing.

It was around then that she realized just how fond she had grown of the blonde. Did she even see Peridot as a student anymore? No, she was so much more than that. She was a friend. Lapis couldn't say she'd have thought she'd ever be calling a student of hers a friend when she first started this job. But, she didn't know Peridot back then either.

She had a little more than an hour before she'd meet up with Peridot again for lunch that day, and Lapis was really looking forward to it. They were what she looked forward to each day, and the fun she had during lunch was what got her through the rest of her day and the stress that followed being an adult.

She must have been smiling for the past ten minutes as she lounged about in the faculty room. She hummed a bit as she cradled a hot cup of coffee between her hands, the dark liquid was her life blood. The young teacher was situated on the faded couch, just lazily waiting for the clock to strike eleven so she could meet up with Peridot and head out. When the door opened and closed, she twisted her head to look at the large woman who had strode into the room.

"Hello, Lapis," Rose greeted with a warm smile as she shuffled over to the coffee machine, her pink curls bouncing as she walked, "You seem to be awfully happy today, has something good happened?"

Lapis' smile didn't falter as she scooted over so the nurse could come and sit beside her on the couch. "Oh, nothing new," she shook her head as she took a drink of her coffee, "I've just been having fun lately. How have you been? Steven doing okay? He's what, thirteen by now?" she asked instead. It'd been forever since she'd seen the boy who had dubbed her his 'Beach Summer Fun Buddy' when she moved into the city during the summer. Safe to say that Lapis had grown fond of the little boy rather quickly.

The woman laughed, "Not quite, he's still nine and he's as cheerful as ever," she shook her head as she took a seat beside Lapis, "He's made a new friend at school, too, a girl named Connie. Goodness, he talks about her all the time. His father's started teaching him to play the ukelele."

"Is he now? Well, I'll have to ask him to play me a song some day."

"He'd love to," Rose confirmed, still smiling in the soothing, motherly way of hers, "He would love to see you again, Lapis. You should consider stopping by one day, join us for dinner even."

The idea of having dinner with the warm, loving family was welcoming, and Lapis would love to do that again one of these days, But, she'd hate to put any strain on the family. She knew that the Quartz-Universe family wasn't the best off financially. Being a teacher and running a carwash that didn't get too many customers weren't the best paying jobs out there, and though they made enough to make ends meet and have a bit of spending money to live comfortably, she didn't want to make give them an extra mouth to feed or use their money on someone other than themselves. As such Lapis tried as best she could to refuse any charity or offers from Rose as best as she could, "I'd hate to impose though, you know that " Lapis answered as she got up to get a refill of coffee.

"Honestly, Lapis! You're never imposing," Rose scolded her without any heat to it, and the two women shared a smile. "Steven really would love for you to come over, it'd make his day." Oh, this woman knew how to play her cards.

Lapis shook her head lightly, "Well… I guess for Steven's sake, I could swing by one of these days to catch up," she said slowly but smiled nonetheless. "Can't disappoint the little man, you know? If I do, I might lose my title as his Beach Summer Fun Buddy, and what would I do then?" the woman laughed a little.

"You do have a title to defend and all."

"Exactly!"

The air was easy and gentle, it was relaxing in fact. Lapis felt at home right now. Not that it was anything new; it was common for people to feel like they were safe and sound when around Rose. She had that aura around her that, and that understanding, unconditional love to everyone around her. She was a woman that Lapis could admire. No wonder the majority of the student body loved her, she was like a second mom to so many people here. The woman who'd never judge you and accept you as perfect and beautiful just how you are. She was the teacher who would always leave her door open for students who were having trouble and needed a place to stay. Had her ears open for the students who needed to vent or talk to someone about their problems.

She always treated the students as though they were her own children, and that was something to admire. She always went above and beyond what was required of a faculty member.

But the calm mood between them was soon disrupted as someone else entered the faculty room. Unlike when Rose entered, the door was not opened and closed gently. Instead, it was all but thrown open, and it shut with a loud bang that had both Lapis and Rose flinch in surprise.

"So this is where you were! I was looking everywhere for you!" An all too familiar voice shouted and Lapis felt her blood begin to boil and her smile turn into a scowl. Her grip on her cup tightening drastically as she glared at the hulking woman who had just entered the faculty room, at the dark skin with lighter patches streaking across, the bleached hair and bright amber eyes.

"Jasper," she said as curtly, her name a harsh bite. She saw Rose rise from her spot on the couch, ready to step in if things got bad. She knew just as well as Lapis did at how Jasper could get when angry, especially when Rose wasn't exactly her favorite person in the world, for reasons Lapis couldn't even try to understand.

Either not noticing Lapis' clear discomfort at the gym teacher's presence, or probably ignoring it altogether, the woman strode forward so she was in front of Lapis, towering several inches over the art teacher, "Lapis, join me for dinner tonight," it wasn't a request, it never was. Jasper always just told her to do something and never asked. It seemed she still had that nasty habit even after they'd broken up.

Lapis shook her head, putting her cup of coffee on the counter next to the brewer as she crossed her arms over her chest, "No," she said firmly. "I thought we were clear on this."

It was clear that Jasper was _trying_ to be polite about this, as much as she could be with how things were between them, but the flash of annoyance at Lapis refusal did not go unnoticed. She saw her hands clench a little, her jaw stiffen, her eyes narrow. "I've already made a reservation, Lapis. I thought it would be nice to just go out to eat and catch up," she said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I even chose a nice restaurant too. We don't have to do anything, just get dinner and talk."

"Jasper, I said no," Lapis repeated, her frown deepening as she took a step away from Jasper. This was the wrong move as she saw the attempted friendly expression break away to show off her anger.

"Christ, Lapis! Why are you being so difficult!" Jasper yelled as though the reason wasn't obvious to her.

Rose stepped forward to place a hand on Jaspers shoulder, trying to play a mediator before things got ugly, "Jasper, if you would please remain calm," she tried, but her hand was violently shrugged off with a snarl that she was to 'butt out' from the large woman.

Sighing, Lapis turned to look at the nurse with a tired expression, "Rose? Could you please go?" she asked as politely as she could, though she felt her own anger coursing through her just by having to be by Jasper, "I really think this would be best if we talked this out between ourselves, you know?"

"Are you sure?" Rose asked, glancing at Jasper. It was clear she wasn't too keen on leaving the exes alone in the faculty room, far too many things they could stab the other with and all that. But, after a moment she sighed, "Okay, just, be safe."

At that, Lapis offered her a smile, "Don't worry, we're just going to talk," her eyes flashed dangerously at Jasper, " _right_?"

The gym teacher nodded, though her expression still hardened.

As satisfied as she was going to be with this situation, Rose let out a soft sigh and stepped out of the room, mumbling to Lapis that she would be in the nurse's office if the woman needed her after this. Both women watched as the nurse left the room, staring at the door as it shut closed behind her.

When both were sure that she was gone, Lapis turned to stare at Jasper, her anger not concealed, "What the Hell are you doing?" she demanded in a growl, taking a step towards her, "What part of 'breakup' can you not understand?"

Jasper didn't back down, instead, she glared at Lapis with just as much heat, "What's wrong with _me_? All I was doing was trying to invite you to a friendly evening out to catch up! We haven't had an actual conversation since we broke up!" She yelled back, "Is it a crime to try and catch up and be friendly with my ex?"

"We both know you're not trying to 'catch up'."

There was a tense moment of silent as the two glared at each other. Despite being much shorter than Jasper, the art teacher did not back down. She held her ground and stared at Jasper with so much anger and hate, and could feel the heat of Jasper's own glare burning her. But it was only a matter of time before the silence would break and the screams would start. Whether they were together or not, they could never _not_ turn an argument into a war between them.

Finally, Jasper broke the silence with a snarl. "So what if it's not?" she replied, fists clenched tight and trembling at her sides, "We should be together again, we both know that! We were great together, perfect even! We were made for each other! You know that just as well as I do! So why are you being so damn stubborn and trying to refuse it?"

"Are you serious?" Lapis laughed, it was harsh and humorless. Had Jasper gone deranged during their breakup? "We were _awful_ for each other! Or did you forget all the doctor visits for broken bones, all the bruises and busted lips?"

"We can be better this time!" It was a repeat of what she often said when Jasper begged Lapis to come back to her, meaningless, hollow promises and lies. She felt the large hands of the woman clamp onto her own smaller ones, "I'm a better person, I'm better at controlling my anger. I'm better, _we're_ better!"

"No, we won't How many times do I have to say that we won't? You said that so many times before and you never did get better!" Lapis snarled, ripping her hands free from Jaspers grip, she stumbled back a little as she regained her footing and putting space between the woman, "You were awful, dating you was the worst thing I'd ever done! Why would I _ever_ want to go back to you?" She would have to be seriously mental to ever want to return to that horrible life!

"Because! Who else can love you like I do?" Jasper yelled back, taking a menacing step forward as she grabbed Lapis by the arm, a grip so tight the woman could feel the bruise forming, "You really think anyone else but I can love you once they know the shit that goes on in your head? Do you?" Jasper tugged her forward and grabbed onto her shoulder with her other arm, giving her a harsh shake as she yelled at her.

Lapis gritted her teeth at the pain flaring up from where Jasper gripped her, swallowing to glare up at her instead of letting out any signs that she was hurting her, honestly this was nothing compared to what they usually did when they fought, "Well, I don't know, I think I'm doing pretty well so far on that front!" She shot back.

She could see Jaspers expression slacken into one of confusion, "What?" she asked, her grip loosening in her surprise.

A wave of triumph washed over Lapis for a moment as she wrenched herself free from Jasper once more, "Just what it sounds like!" she sneered at her ex, "I've been doing pretty good on dating! I've a new girlfriend in fact! We've gone on dates every day and she's leagues ahead of you. She makes me feel great, she listens to me, she never yells, she never gets angry, and she's actually fun to be around!" Lapis listed on her fingers as she spoke to Jasper. She felt a twinge of guilt in the back of her mind using Peridot as an excuse like this and claiming to be her girlfriend. But, so long as she didn't list any names, no one would get in trouble, right? She just needed Jasper to back off, and maybe if Jasper thought she wasn't available anymore, that'd do the trick. "She treats me right, which is more than I could say for you."

She saw rage in those amber eyes and narrowly managed to fling herself back before she could grab her. "Who the hell took you?" Jasper yelled making another attempt at Lapis. The artist could practically see the veins bulging on Jasper's neck as her face turned red with rage and jealousy.

"Like Hell I'm telling you!" Lapis snapped back as she managed to move so that the sofa was between them.

This was getting bad, any longer and it might end up like one of the fights they'd have back when they were together. Lapis really didn't want to have to explain to Peridot why she had bruises on her face and broken knuckles on her hands. But, Jasper didn't really seem to have any intent on calming down. Once she got angry there was little that Lapis could do to calm her down.

Though, it seemed like Lapis wouldn't have to be the one to do that.

"What is going on in here?" A voice so soft and frail broke into the room and had both teachers freeze where they stood. There was no anger, no accusation in the tone of the speaker, just soft and sorrow. They'd recognize it anywhere.

Principal Azure and her assistant, Blue Pearls stood at the door of the faculty room, her lithe and young secretary quietly closing the door behind them to give the group privacy from the rest of the student and faculty body. Neither showed any annoyance at what they had walked in on, nor any anger. "A student had come to me saying he heard screaming in the faculty room. Could I ask the two of you to tell me what upset you so much that you were fighting?"

Lapis was the first to make a move, taking a few quick steps to where Principal Azure stood and away from Jasper. "Principal Azure! Sorry, ma'am," she was quick to apologize and flashed a glare at Jasper, "But Ms. Chalcedony got angry and jealous and, like a child, started lashing out."

"Oh? Going to pin this all on me, are you?" Jasper growled as she walked towards them, "Real mature."

The principal was a tall woman, her long hair pale and her face weary and aged from grief and sorrow over her deceased lover. She wore a blue shawl with a hood that would often shadow her face, and she always spoke softly. She never seemed to get angry or upset by the faculty and students, and everyone always felt guilty for bothering her or bringing her stress whenever she had to be involved. Her assistant, Blue, rarely spoke either, some said she only ever spoke to Azure. A young woman in her mid twenties who devoted all her energy to assisting Azure both in work and emotionally.

Even now, with those sorrow filled eyes staring at Lapis and Jasper, the art teacher felt something awful for letting her argument with Jasper escalate to the point the sweet older woman had to step in.

"Jasper," Azure said softly, "Please, no need to be angry. If you would relax- both of you, I would like to take you both to my office so I can discuss with you both, separately and privately, on what the problem is. I don't like seeing any of my teachers upset with eachother like what I saw today."

There was no point in arguing with the woman, both Jasper and Lapis could agree on that. So, heads hanging low, they could only quietly agree and follow the principal out of the room and to her office. A few students and even a few teachers were watching them leave with eyes wide. Had they really gotten so loud that people had heard through the walls and doors? Yikes.

Hopefully, though Lapis wouldn't be late for lunch with Peridot. She'd hate to make the girl wait, and she was seriously going to need that time with her after this.

* * *

For the past few days, Peridot noticed that her body was filled with fuzz and her heart was doing acrobats.

Did she understand what any of that meant? Nope.

All the senior understood was that she got funny feelings whenever she spoke to Lapis, saw Lapis or even just thought of her. Her heart would speed up, her face would get hot like she was running some fever. It was hard to focus because once Lapis was in her mind, she couldn't get the blue haired teacher out of it. She'd end up thinking of just the silliest of things when it came to the woman.

How she smelled nice when she'd brush past her, how pretty her smile was, how she had her hair kept so nice that day, or that she must have been feeling lazy because her hair was messier. Peridot couldn't even look at the color blue without her mind going back to Lapis.

It was a problem. She couldn't think straight, she couldn't focus. If she tried to focus on her homework or readings her mind would wander back to something Lapis had said or how Lapis was looking at her during class. Not to mention all the weird physical feelings she was getting whenever Lapis was involved. She felt like she was sick, but it wasn't even an unpleasant feeling, and that's what worried Peridot more.

But, the worst part was that she knew her grades were starting to slip. Because Lapis was always on her mind, she couldn't concentrate on lectures or assignments. The last bunch of assignments she'd gotten back, homework and quizzes… well she hadn't gotten a single A. Instead they'd been inked with B's and C's.

Peridot was certain she felt her heart stop and her blood turn to ice when she saw the red C on the paper.

It was all Lapis' fault, it was her fault that Peridot couldn't think straight anymore. It was her fault that she was all Peridot ever thought about this past couple of weeks. It was all her fault, but yet Peridot couldn't find it in her to even truly blame Lapis for her failing.

Hunching over in her chair, Peridot subtly brought a hand up to her chest to clench at her hoodie. Great. Her heart was back to its gymnastic tricks again and leaving warm, fuzzy feelings all over her insides. What was wrong with her?

"Peridot, are you listening?"

She was snapped out of her daze by a somewhat annoyed Pearl who had snapped her book closed and was now hovering very close to Peridot with a scolding look on her face. On the other side of the table, she could see Amethyst snickering at Peridot for having spaced out as she did and getting the attention of their group leader.

Right, she was in the middle of a discussion group with Pearl and Amethyst over a book they were reading for their English class.

"Oh, do I have your attention now?" Pearl asked with a huff as she leaned back in her chair and reopened her book, her expression softened somewhat as she took another look at the blonde, "Honestly, Peridot. It isn't like you to be daydreaming in class, are you sick or something?"

Peridot groaned as she leaned forward and pressed her face against the cool table, "I think I might be," she muttered, though it was almost incomprehensible between her under-her-breath grumble and the table muffling it further.

Somehow though Amethyst was able to make sense of her garble of words and leaned her weight against the table to look at Peridot with concern, "What? Did you eat something bad? Catch a flu? Hear there's one going around right now."

"I told you to make sure you got your flu shot before school started!" Pearl squawked as she put her book down yet again to rustle through her bag, "I should have something in here to help with some of the symptoms until you get home, then you can take some actual medicine."

It was sweet, really, but Peridot doubted whatever medical preparations Pearl packed could help her.

"It's not a flu," Peridot assured them as she pushed herself to sit up straight, hand back to her chest, "Honestly, I don't know what's wrong with me."

The couple exchanged looks before locking their gazes onto Peridot. She could see their worry and concern for her as the two scooted to sit closer to her around the table. A glance around to see if the teacher was watching and Amethyst began talking, "Hey, Per, why not just explain to us what you're feeling? Maybe we can tell you what's wrong?" her friend offered and held a hand out to Pearl, "I may not know much about the medical stuff, but, Pearls spent more than enough time with Rose she's picked up on quite a bit."

The dancer nodded, "We want to help you, and if we can help identify what sickness you may have, well, what kind of friends would we be if we didn't?"

It took some time to mull over, to decide whether it was worth it or not to relay her symptoms to her two friends. But, after a bit of time, the girl decided that there wasn't any harm in it if she were to be careful about what she said. "Okay, I'm not expecting much, but, it couldn't hurt," Peridot said with a small nod.

"Alright!" Amethyst quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to quiet herself down when the teacher glanced their way. Waiting a few seconds for the woman to look away, she smiled at Peridot and continued in a quieter voice, "Okay, just, tell us what you're feeling."

She nodded and looked down at her lap, "Well… my heart has started beating a lot faster recently, sometimes it feels like it might burst out of my chest, or that others might hear it pounding inside of me. I can't seem to focus anymore because my mind always ends up going back to La… someone," Peridot began, glancing up at her friends who were watching her intently. Their intense gazes had her look away rather quickly as she continued to talk, "If I think about them, my stomach starts to knot up and I start feeling nervous, but also excited? It's confusing… But, I can't help think about them, my minds always wandering over to them despite me trying not to think of them."

"I, I see," Amethyst faltered for a second, bringing a hand rest her chin on, covering her mouth and hiding her growing smile, "Do you think that you tell us what you think of this person? How you feel with them and all?"

"What, how does that help anything?" Peridot questioned with a frown and her brows furrowing together.

Even Pearl was smiling now, a little too knowing for Peridots taste. "Trust us, it'll help."

She didn't like that expression they had, but, she took a deep breath, making sure to do what she could to avoid giving away Lapis' identity as she spoke, "Well… they're annoying at times, can be a bit too up close and personal. But… it's oddly nice? They're affectionate in a way and," she paused to try and hide her growing blush, "They're kind of… really attractive. And talented too! They always listen to me even when I'm probably being annoying, and they're always inviting me to hang out, even though they probably have twenty other things that are more important. They're… fun to be around and I really enjoy spending time with them. But, I always get weird feelings whenever I see or talk to them."

Peridot fell silent and narrowed her eyes at the two, "Okay, why are you two smiling like that?" she asked as she felt herself leaning back away from them, "It's really creeping me out, okay?"

But, Amethyst started laughing as Pearl covered her mouth with both hands, her blue eyes glistening with tears and pride. Before Peridot could question any further, her best friend pulled her into a side hug.

"Oh my God! Our Peri's got a crush!" she cheered to Pearl, holding out a fist for her girlfriend, "She's all grown up! I can't believe it!"

Peridot squirmed to get out of Amethysts grip, "What are you talking about?" She demanded as she finally pried herself away and fixed the woman with a glare, "I don't have a crush!"

But, Pearl was smiling even bigger now, nodding her head along with what Amethyst had said, "Peridot, what you described; there's no denying that you're attracted to them," she confirmed, bringing her hands down to her lap, "You have a crush, and it's precious."

Peridot wanted to argue, but instead, she fell silent, mulling over what the girls told her and what she had said to them. Trying to find the connection, the lies and the truths of the statement. Something to prove she was right and they were wrong, that she didn't have something as stupid as a crush on her teacher. But… she couldn't find anything to contradict them and she found her eyes widening at that. They were right.

Shit.

She felt disbelief at this news, surprise even. But, more than anything, a wave of shame and terror washed over her. She had a crush on Lapis Lazuli, she had a crush on her art teacher. This was… this wasn't wright. This was wrong in so many ways.

"Aren't you happy? You might finally get yourself an S.O, great, right?" Amethyst laughed as she nudged Peridot gently.

The blonde could only nod numbly, "Yeah," she said, not all that enthusiastic about that idea.

As the class continued on and came to an end, Peridot felt worse than what she had before talking to her friends. She felt guilty for how she felt. She wasn't supposed to feel that way, not for Lapis. She'd crossed an unspoken line in their friendship, felt like she'd betrayed the blue haired artists trust somehow by developing these feelings for her.

She couldn't let Lapis find out.

"What am I going to do?" Peridot whispered to herself as she leaned against some of the lockers. Maybe if she ignored the feelings long enough, they'd fade away on their own? No… she wasn't dumb enough to believe that'd work, especially with how often she interacted with the object of those affections. There was no way she could just ignore them and hope they'd leave her alone.

But, if she let them grow, she knew deep inside she'd fuck up somehow. She wasn't the best actress, after all, and Lapis would figure out something was up quickly, and then things were bound to go downhill from there.

She was at a loss for what to do.

"Peridot! Didn't think I'd run into you here!"

Her heart did a flip, the butterflies in her stomach started going crazy, and her body was racked with an acute sense of dread at the voice she'd come to love hearing so much. Oh god, why now of all times?

"H-Hey, Lapis," Peridot greeted with a weak smile as she turned to watch Lapis striding down the hall, "What are you doing here and… not in the art room?"

She saw annoyance flash through those blue eyes, as though something bad had happened earlier, but it was gone as quickly as it came, replaced with that genuine warmth that she always showed PEridot, "Well, I had to talk with the principal for a little bit. Just got done and was on my way back to the room to wait for you actually," Lapis explained with a smile, "But, since we're both here, why not head out now for lunch? I've got my wallet on me so I don't _need_ to really make any stops. Unless you do."

Oh, right. They were getting lunch today, like they always did. Peridot had let that slip her mind during her internal panic. She was supposed to meet Lapis at the art room and they'd go to _The Barn_ for food and chat like always.

There was no way Peridot could do that with her now!"

"Actually, um… about that," Peridot began, looking away and rubbing the back of her head in nervousness, "I… can't make it for lunch today."

She glanced up to look at Lapis and wished she hadn't. The disappointment and poorly hidden hurt at the rejection in her expression was like a stab to her heart. There was no way that this could bother Lapis too much, she must have so much other things she'd rather do anyways.

"Oh, I see. Did something happen?" Lapis asked, her voice light and innocent despite the expression she had when Peridot said no.

The student gave a quick nod, "Um, yeah. I have a project for a class I have to work on with a classmate," she lied quickly. Schoolwork was an understandable priority over meals, right? "We, um, we have the same free period, and it would be easier to work on it together during this time." Her heart was racing and her palms sweating. It was a miracle she wasn't trembling as she lied, even moreso that Lapis hadn't realized she was lying through her teeth either.

"Well, that's okay. We're still up for lunch tomorrow, right?"

She swallowed and shook her head, "I'll, um, have to give you a raincheck on that. I won't be available until the project is done," Peridot answered and began hastily backing away, "In fact, I should um be going now. If I wait too long they're going to get impatient. But, um by Lazuli!"

Peridot didn't even give Lapis a chance to say goodbye before she fled the scene faster than she ever ran in gym class. She didn't dare look back at her or she'd risk what little resolve she had shattering.

Guilt gnawed at her like a hungry beast for lying to Lapis like that, and she felt like she was drowning in shame. But, there was no way she could face Lapis. All she wanted to do right now was hide under a rock and never see another living person for as long as she remained on this pitiful rock known as Earth.

Peridot never looked back as she hurried down the hall to put as much distance between herself and Lapis as possible. She _needed_ to get as far from her as she could right now. Oh, God, if Lapis knew Peridot had a crush on her, she would die. Either Lapis would laugh and mock her for it, or she'd be downright disgusted and hate Peridot.

Peridot wasn't sure which was worse.

She shouldn't even be having these feelings in the first place, god damn it! Lapis was her teacher, sure they weren't like ten years apart in age or anything, but the gap both age and standings, between them, was still there and it was like an endless chasm.

It was one thing to be friendly with Lapis, it was a different thing entirely when she grew attracted to her.

"Can't hide in the library… can't hide in the lunchroom," Lapis might see her in both places and call her out on her lie, she needed someplace to hide that Lapis wouldn't go, and if she were looking for Peridot, not that she would, she would never think to look. A place no one would look for Peridot in, so she could die of humiliation and shame alone.

As though an answer from the angels, as Peridot was distracted looking at the floor, she didn't notice the oncoming door until she walked right into it and fell back in surprise. Rubbing her sore nose, she glared at it until she noticed the sign above it.

The weight room.

She could hide from the entire world in here! No one in their right mind would ever think that she, who hated gym and exercise, would spend time in a sweat smelling place filled with torture devices. She remembered Amethyst telling her that the place was usually empty during the school hours; students preferring to use the room when they could go home right after to wash the stench off themselves and all that. So, if Amethyst was right, she could have the room all to herself until she had to go to her next class after lunch.

Skipping lunch was worth it to hide from any potential encounters with Lapis Lazuli.

Jesus, the woman wasn't even following her, yet her brain was making her think like Lapis would bother to chase after her after Peridot fled from her. She was overreacting and a part of her knew this, but that didn't mean she was going to relax anytime soon. Taking a deep breath, Peridot pushed the heavy doors open and stepped into the room.

It was what she'd expected; somewhat spacious and filled with all sorts of torturous devices meant to build muscle and burn fat. It felt like some kind of Spanish Inquisition Torture Chamber to Peridot.

"Well, never thought I'd see _you_ of all people in the weight room," Jasper Chalcedony commented from where she leaned against a punching bag, looking somewhat amused and somewhat surprised to see Peridot walk in.

Oh. So she wouldn't be alone after all. Peridot could only nervously raise a hand to greet her gym teacher, "Oh, um surprise?" she said with a tremble of a smile.


	9. Chapter 9

"What am I doing here?" Peridot repeated with a not so well hidden streak of nervousness. How could she _not_ be nervous? Oh, Stars, she should not have been as surprised as she was to see the gym teacher, Jasper Chalcedony, in the weight room. The woman already looked like all she did was lift weights if the muscle she was packing was any sign. "I… I'm here to work out, obviously! Why else would I be in a weight room?"

Jasper raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest as she stepped away from the punching bag to draw closer. "You can't really expect me to buy that you, the worst student I've _ever_ had, who hates gym, came here to work out," she drawled and her eyes ran over Peridots body, taking in her appearance from head to toe before her gaze settled back on Peridots own face, and a slightly amused look came over her, "Besides, you aren't dressed for it, at all. Unless you plan to work up a sweat in your hoodie and jeans."

Cheeks turning hot, Peridot knew she couldn't get out of this one. Anyone else and Peridot _might_ have a chance to make them believe that she really came here to work out and not hide from her teacher and crush. But she wasnA't going to lie to herself into thinking she could make Jasper believe her. "I'm… I'm here to hide, okay?" she admitted as she sank down to sit on the floor, "Happy? I'm in this smelly room because I'm hiding."

"Hiding? Aren't you a bit old to be playing hide and seek?" Jasper asked.

Peridot shot her a glare, but she wasn't able to put any heat behind it. She was too tired from the past hour to even get angry. "What are _you_ doing in here?" She returned instead with at least some bite, "Don't teachers have paperwork or something to be doing during school?"

"I'm free until the seventh period," Jasper answered easily, "As for why I'm here? To blow off steam. Got into a pretty bad fight with someone; it's better for everyone if I'm in here letting out that anger than taking it out on the students."

"You mean you're not already?" it was a weak attempt at a joke, but it was enough to get a low laugh from the teacher.

Neither of them said anything after that, a silent agreement that there was nothing else to be said. Jasper did not question her anymore, instead, she turned back to face the punching bag she'd been working on before Peridot came. The student watched as she readied herself; her stance squared and her legs spread, knees bent. She watched as those dark arms, thick with muscles, raised and leveled themselves. For a moment, Peridot felt a bit of pity for the beatdown the punching bag was about to get from the woman.

Her punches were quick and sharp, jabs so fast that Peridot almost didn't catch most of them. The weight room was filled with the sound of dull, heavy thuds as her fists collided with the thick bag, a faint squeak from the chain every time it was pushed back. Jasper had a rhythm, a tempo to her punches. Peridot could see a type of discipline in her form, not something she'd see in a fistfight between students. But, even more, apparent was the anger behind each punch she threw at the punching bag. It was in the force she used, in the way her brows narrowed and her teeth bared occasionally.

If she did this every time she was angry, Peridot was kind of scared to see what class would be like if Jasper came to it pissed off. She would probably die from exhaustion and exertion from how much harder the teacher would push the students she was already pushing to the limits.

How long had Jasper been in here, going at it with the punching bag? The blonde was surprised there wasn't a large, fist shaped hole beaten into it yet. But, it was probably just a matter of time.

The minutes went on, fading into one another. Peridot wasn't sure how long she sat there, watching Jasper as she hid from Lapis and from her own problems. But, eventually, Jasper stopped and grabbed the bag to steady it from it's shaking and trembling caused by all her punches. Her dark skin was glistening with the sweat she'd worked up and she'd grabbed a towel she had hanging from a nearby weight stand to wipe her face off.

It was around then that Peridot decided she'd dare to speak and ask.

"Ms. Chalcedony, you said you got into a fight, what was it over?" she asked, her voice unsure, as though asking might bring down the wrath of a war god. But, she figured listening to Jaspers issues might be a good enough distraction from her own.

The large teacher glanced up at her and shrugged, "Adult things," she answered as she grabbed a bottle of water.

"I am an adult," was the automatic response she said in her most monotonous voice. She saw a small grin forming at that from the woman who shook her head, "I mean, maybe talking it out can help just as much as beating up defenseless bags? I promise I won't tell anyone, I'm not really into the gossiping thing anyways. You'll probably also kill me if I do, and I value my life too much to risk it."

Jasper glanced at her and then looked away, "I doubt you'd understand. It's relationship problems."

Oh. So Jasper too, huh? She couldn't help but give a deprecating laugh as she shook her head and sank deeper where she sat, "We're in the same boat then," the girl said out loud. What, was the weight room the general hiding spot for girls who happened to have problems with romance? Must be if there were two at once with their own love problems.

The teacher glanced at her curiously, raising a brow at Peridot, "You're having problems with a relationship?" She repeated, and Peridot could see the look in her eyes. The silent demand for details as she took a few steps towards Peridot.

"I… um… not so much a relationship, it's complicated," Peridot admitted in a mumble, she could feel her cheeks heating up in embarrassment. She doesn't want to talk about it, she wanted to forget about it all. She shouldn't have said anything at all because it looked like she'd really caught Jaspers curiosity on the subject.

But the large woman gave a smile, a large smile baring teeth. It wasn't gentle, it was borderline menacing even if that was not the intention. "How about a deal," Jasper said as she came to sit down on the floor beside Peridot. She smelled faintly of sweat, but it wasn't so strong that it made it unbearable for Peridot to sit near her, "You tell me what it was that has you up here hiding, and I'll tell you about my relationship trainwreck. That way we can satisfy each other's curiosity," she offered to the smaller woman.

Peridot raised a brow at her, "Are you sure that's a good thing to do, being a teacher and all?" she asked her. "That's not much of a teacher-student conversation, you know, delves pretty deep into the personal lives."

"Says the one who wanted me to talk about why I was here, but, do we have a deal or not," Jasper responded with a light bite of minor annoyance.

Peridot hesitated but gave a small nod to her to show her agreement. Maybe… maybe talking about it would help ease her frayed nerves on the situation. Couldn't hurt anything.

How was she supposed to even start that sort of conversation, anyways? "I'm in love with my art teacher and I'm panicking" wasn't exactly the best way to go about it. But, she had some time to think, Jasper was at least being polite enough to give her time to sort out her words and thoughts rather than pressing her to start talking there and then.

A few minutes passed in silence before Peridot sighed and drew her knees up closer to herself, "Well… I realized I may have a sort of…. Crush on someone today." she admitted slowly. It still felt so weird to be saying it out loud, especially to a teacher. She had to be careful how she worded it, Lapis could get in trouble if she named her, "I was supposed to meet up with them for lunch, but when I saw them I fled, and here I am, hiding."

The athlete frowned, "Why would you run from them?" she asked, "If you have a crush on someone, you should push to be with them."

"It's someone I'm not supposed to have feelings for, that's why," Peridot practically snapped as she gave a small glare to the woman, "I shouldn't like them, and if I spend more time with them, I might end up screwing up and getting in trouble for it. I don't want to get in trouble, I don't want them to be in trouble because I got a stupid little crush."

There was a moment of silence before Jasper sighed and looked up at the ceiling, contemplating her words before answering, "This person is a girl, aren't they?" she asked and Peridot flinched a little at how easily she guessed it, "Usually it's a girl with how you phrased it. Parents homophobic?"

At the question, Peridot frowned and lowered her head, was her mother homophobic? She wasn't sure, she didn't spend nearly enough time with the woman to know and never had any conversations that the topic had ever come up. It wouldn't surprise her if her mother was.

"Might be, she never talks about it so I don't know," Peridot answered instead.

Jasper nodded and gave a small hum, "If she's not, and if the others parents aren't homophobic, I'd not worry too much," Jasper said and then sat up straighter, "Even if they are, don't let them bother you, it's your love life, not theirs."

She sank down further into the floor, looking at her feet as though they were the most interesting thing ever, "That's… that wasn't ever the problem," she mumbled burying her face in her knees.

"Then what is?" Jasper asked, it was just soft enough to be considered gentle, but still had that demanding tone.

Peridot hesitated to answer the question. How much should she actually say? Gripping herself tighter she didn't dare raise her head to look at the gym teacher, "She's… an older woman," not to mention her teacher.

"Oh. Mother Complex."

Her head shot up at that, eyes wide with panic and her mouth began spluttering out words faster than her brain could process them, "Wh-what? No! She's not _that_ much older than me! The age gap isn't massive- _I don't have a Mom Complex_!" Peridot screeched, her face burning a blaze of embarrassed glory. But, Jasper was laughing, a deep, full-bellied laugh as though she'd only meant it as a joke. Still red in the face, Peridot slunk back down, "She's out of high school and all that, in her twenties. But still, she's older than me by a bit."

"Well, you're eighteen, aren't you?" Jasper asked and didn't even wait for Peridots reply, "Sure, it'd be a bit of a problem if you were seventeen or younger, but, you're not. You are a legally consenting adult." she was almost sounding like a teacher as she said that, giving out words of wisdom and advice rather than yelling at everyone to keep running and that if they could still stand they could still move like she did in the gym. "You just gotta be careful is all, plenty of adults who'll take advantage of you _because_ you're eighteen. You're legal, but you're just young enough to still have the naivete of a minor, and those people will just use and abuse you."

Peridot knew what she meant. Not every adult was some morally upstanding citizen. "She wouldn't… she's not a bad person," Peridot said.

"If you think she's a good person, and if you know she's attracted to women, I'd say give it a shot," Jasper said giving her a rough pat on the shoulder, "What's the worse that can happen? If she says no, it won't be the end of the world."

No. It just meant Peridot would have to drop out of her class, transfer schools and never show her face in this city again for as long as she lived. It's not like Peridot could just avoid Lapis the rest of the year if she confessed and got rejected. Not that Peridot had any plans of confessing, ever. There was no possible way it would end well. She wasn't taking that risk,

"Maybe," she said instead, staring at the dirty floor.

They still had maybe an hour before class would resume for Peridot, and she wasn't really hungry. Her appetite was long gone for the day after all. But, she also had no intention of leaving the weight room and risk running into Lapis. She wanted to be able to avoid her for the rest of the day, so staying out of the halls for as long as possible was her plan. But still, she needed something to pass the time with.

Her eyes settled on Jasper who was still seated next to her, though there was plenty of space between them to fit a few more students if any came in. Now that she was having an actual conversation with her, she was a lot different than what Peridot had originally assumed. Not nearly as terrifying as she is when teaching. She frowned as she accessed the gym teacher, "I told my story," she said after a moment, "Now, are you going to tell me why you're here?"

She laughed and gave Peridot a lopsided grin, "I was kind of hoping you'd forget that side of the deal," she admitted as she stretched, back arching, "You sure you want to hear?"

"It's only fair."

"True," Jasper agreed and looked up, "So, like I said; relationship problems," she said stiffly.

Peridot waited patiently for Jasper to gather her words, much like what Jasper had done for her. She watched from the corner of her eye as Jasper tensed and relaxed over and over and over again, gnawing on her lip as she thought. After an eternity she looked up at the ceiling as though now knowing what she wanted to say.

"My ex and I, we broke up a while ago, but, I'm still trying to get us back together," she explained calmly, "I ran into her earlier today, I asked her if she'd like to get dinner with me, catch up for old times sake and all that. I didn't even have any ulterior motives, I literally just wanted to have a meal with her and see how she's been doing since she's been fucking avoiding any and all contact with me outside of work since we broke up."

"That seems a little excessive," Peridot added. They work together and her ex didn't even bother to give a friendly 'hello'? How bad could their breakup have been to warrant that kind of cold shoulder? It wasn't like there was any harm in having a friendly chat with someone.

Jasper nodded, a low growl coming out, "I know, right?" she threw her hands into the air in exasperation, "I even got a really nice place for dinner, too! The kind of restaurant she loved to go to while we were dating! But no! She had to go ballistic at the idea of getting dinner with me! Like she'd rather dine with Satan than with me!"

Peridot let out a soft 'yikes' at that, not even sure what else to say, but thankfully she didn't as Jasper continued talking.

"She started yelling at me, I started yelling at her. We got into a pretty bad argument," she explained, lowering her arms and looking very bitter at the memory, "and now I'm here, letting out my anger on the gym equipment."

She supposed it was better the equipment than the students Jasper released all that stress onto.

"If you don't mind me saying," Peridot began as she glanced at the large woman, "Your ex sounds a bit... harsh," she finished lamely. Maybe there were factors into play that she didn't know, but, from what Jasper was saying, whoever it was she had dated sounded rather unreasonable. Maybe she could ask some other time about why her ex didn't want to spend time with her... or maybe not, she doubted Jasper would actually tell her that much, "Is she always like that?"

Jasper gave a lopsided grin, "She is," she agreed, "But, I love her."

Peridot frowned at that, "Maybe you should find someone else?" she suggested and shrunk back when those sharp eyes fell on her with a look like she'd said something taboo, "I mean, why keep pining over someone who sounds like she hates you?"

She half expected Jasper to snap at her or something, but the woman let out a deflated sigh and leaned against the wall, "It's really not that easy, runt. The two of us? We got a pretty heavy history," she explained with a shake of her head, "It's not something I can just let go and forget at the drop of a hat. Not something I _want_ to let go of and forget."

"Oh…"

Well, in that case, Peridot hoped that Jasper and her ex could get back together if the relationship was so important to her. She had to wonder, though, who was it that Jasper had dated? Try as she might, no name really stuck out to her as a likely candidate. Maybe it was one of the science teachers. Probably not.

She was a bit too deep in thought that she hadn't noticed Jasper get closer until a heavy hand slapped her in the back and nearly sent her flying forward. The startled squeak she let out had Jasper laughing that deep laugh again as she stood up, offering Peridot a hand.

"Well, since we've still got time to kill, and you probably want to stay hiding, why not make the most of the remaining hour?" she offered as she pulled Peridot up to her feet. At the questioning look on the blonde's face, Jasper grinned, all teeth bared, "We can use this time so I can whip you into shape. Make you less of a pathetic mess in my class."

"Wow, glad you think so highly of me," was the sarcastic respond Peridot let out, it got another laugh. But, she didn't decline at least. A bit of exercise wouldn't kill her, and it wasn't like Jasper could go full force in here like she did in the gym. Hopefully. "Just try not to break me, I still have classes after this."

"I make no promises, now get out of that hoodie and let's start doing stretches."

* * *

This chapter would have gone very differently if they realized they were _both_ talking about Lapis


	10. Chapter 10

She did something wrong, she _must_ have done something wrong.

Ever since she'd run into Peridot earlier that day, and saw the girl run off as she had, Lapis couldn't stop thinking that she did something to cause that. Had she crossed an unspoken line? Gone too far with her flirting and teasing? Said or did something that had upset Peridot in some way? She didn't know. She couldn't think of anything that she could have done, and the girl had seemed fine that morning when they saw each other in art class, even when she left she was no different. She'd smiled at Lapis and made friendly small talk while there weren't any students and was as she always was.

But, she looked so terrified when Lapis saw her next like she was scared of _Lapis_. Like the teacher had done something to hurt her somehow? She'd tried to find Peridot after school, but the blonde must have hightailed it out of the building as soon as the bell rang, she didn't even see her at her locker or in the halls at all. She had to give Peridot some credit there; the girl could book it when she wanted to.

She just wanted to know if Peridot was okay, if she did something wrong and if so; how she could make it up to her student.

God, it was eating her up inside not knowing what she did.

Maybe she'd told her friends about their time together and they'd talked Peridot into seeing Lapis as some kind of creep, a pervert for hanging around her student like she did. Talked her out of just talking with her. Maybe someone put all sorts of thoughts into Peridots head to keep them apart. If someone did, Lapis was going to find them and...

She didn't know what she'd do. What even could she do in that situation? If she did anything, she'd just make herself look worse. She'd seem possessive, she didn't want to be possessive of a person again.

Hell, she didn't even know what the problem was to begin with! Honestly, that's what made it worse, the not knowing. If she knew what she did wrong, why Peridot ran from her, then this wouldn't bother her as much. Wouldn't hurt her as much. She'd have an idea of where she went wrong, have an idea of how she could fix it all. If something needed to be fixed. What was she saying, there was no 'if', she did something wrong and that was that, that meant there _was_ something that needed fixing.

She couldn't help but think that this would all hurt less if she hadn't gotten into a fight with Jasper just before running into Peridot. Her ex always made everything feel so much worse, and this was no exception.

"Maybe Peridot heard me and Jasper fighting," Lapis murmured as she rested her head against her paint-caked desk, staring out into her empty classroom. "If so, can't blame her for wanting to avoid me, I'd want to avoid someone if I'd overheard or seen what went on between Jasper and me."

This was just awful, some stupid mess she wished she wasn't in.

Lapis let out another, long and dread filled groan as she covered the back of her head with her arms. Hoping to be swallowed up by the void that made off with tubes of paint and her good paint brushes when her back was turned.

She'd try again tomorrow. Maybe Peridot was just upset by something. But what if she didn't want to talk to Lapis again, or have anything to do with Lapis again? She could feel her heart twisting painfully in her chest just thinking about it. God, just, where did she screw up at?

"Lapis?"

The blue-haired art teacher jumped at the intrusive voice before raising her head to look at the nurse in all her plumpness and pink curls glory. Rose had a worried frown and her brows knitted together as she quietly closed the door behind her, silencing the art room to the rowdiness of the hallway.

"Are you okay, Lapis?" Rose asked as she approached the young teacher, glancing around the room, "Did something happen with Jasper? If she did something, I can bring it up with Principal Azure."

Lapis shook her head as she sunk back down onto her desk, "It's not Jasper," well, not entirely. She couldn't say Jasper was completely blameless in her currently dejected mood, but, as much as she may like to, she couldn't pin it all on her. "It's… it's nothing, don't worry about it, Rose."

Rose didn't look all too convinced, "If something's wrong, you can talk to me, you know that right?"

She nodded and didn't look up, instead she began silently counting all the paint stains and marker ink on her desk. So far she'd gotten a pretty big number, too much to count. "I'm fine, I promise. Scouts honor, even," Good thing she was never a scout or she might feel bad about lying. A few moments of silence passed between the two and Lapis glanced up at Rose again. She worried her lip between her teeth as she hesitated in talking. "Hey, your offer to come over for dinner still open?"

The nurse smiled and it was like the sun decided to plant itself on her face with how blindingly bright it was, "It always is. If you're thinking of coming over, would you like me to drive you or…?"

"I think I might stop by. Thanks, but, I can drive myself. I'll need to check in on Malachite before I go," Lapis shook her head. "What time would be good to come over?"

"Anytime, our door is always open, I'll see you there," Rose smiled, "Is there anything I can help you with before I go?"

"I'm good, thanks," Lapis answered as she sat up on her desk. Her chin felt sore from pressing against the desk for so long, "You get going, I'm going to head home soon myself. Mala's bound to be missing me."

"Fair enough," Rose nodded, "Well, if there's nothing you need then I'll be going. Got to make sure there's a table set for you tonight. Say hi to Malachite for me, okay?"

Waving Rose out as she backed out of the room, Lapis gave a smile, "Will do."

Once the nurse was gone, Lapis got to work packing up her bag. Papers, notes and art equipment going into her bag as she fished her keys out of it as well. On her way out, she lingered for a moment in the hall where Peridots locker was, hoping maybe her student was still around, but she didn't see the blonde at all. Though, Lapis did get a glance of Jasper talking to some of the athletes, who, thankfully, did not seem to notice her at all. Thank God for that, they would have had a Round Two of their earlier argument if she had caught sight of Lapis.

With a dejected sigh and heavy weight in her chest, Lapis made her way home.

* * *

It was a couple of hours after talking with Rose that Lapis finally showed up on the doorstep of the Quartz-Universe household. She was still a little early for dinner, but that wouldn't hurt anyone.

She'd hoped that spending some time at home with one of her TV shows and Malachite while she waited for time to pass until she came to Rose's home for dinner would help her forget about earlier. But, it only gave her time to let it simmer inside her even longer. She didn't feel better, she just felt a little worse is all.

Not in regards to Jasper. Sure Lapis was still a bit bothered by her argument with Jasper, but she was over that for the most part. She was still upset over Peridot avoiding her that afternoon. And, honestly? She hated that she was upset over something so stupid.

"Just… try to look like normal," Lapis muttered to herself as she took in a deep breath to collect herself. No use coming into the household of the happiest family ever with a frown. They'd bend their backs backwards just to find out what's wrong and help her. Something she didn't want them to do. "Okay, I'm good. This will be a good night," she pepped herself as she raised her hand and gave the wooden door a few hard knocks.

She could hear loud footsteps, someone running through the house and someone yelling, not that she could make out the words. After a few seconds the door was pulled open and she was met with the smile of a young little boy with curly black hair.

"Lapis!" Steven cried out, throwing himself onto the blue haired woman in a massive hug. "Mom said you'd be coming! I'm glad you came!"

If there was one thing Lapis couldn't deny, it was that she couldn't help but smile whenever Steven was around. The boy just had that power or something. An infectious cheer to him that could make her a little happier when she hung around him. With a small laugh, Lapis bent down to ruffle his hair. "Well, your mom kept inviting me so often, I couldn't keep turning them down, could I?"

Steven laughed at that as he pulled her in with quite a bit of strength for a grade schooler. The door shut behind them and she was led into the living room, past the freshly vacuumed stairs where their cat slept. She could hear a guitar upstairs signaling Greg practicing some songs of his.

From the kitchen Lapis could smell something cooking, it smelled good, though she couldn't figure out what it was. A moment later Rose poked her head out from the entry way and smiled, "Lapis? Is that you?" she asked.

Lapis gave a wave with her free hand, "No, it's a ghost. Here to haunt you and your family for your crimes," she answered jokingly, "Boo."

Rose laughed, shaking her head at that, "Well, I can't imagine what crimes I or my family has committed, are you sure you have the right family, Ms. Ghost?" she asked, playing along with the little joke.

"No, no. You've made some crimes, crimes I'm not at liberty to say, but it's warranted an eternal haunting," Lapis shook her head, giving the nurse a crooked smile as Steven laughed beside her, "But, I'll halt my haunting in exchange for a good meal."

"Come on, mom! We have to feed the ghost!" Steven added with quite a bit of energy, "You don't want us to be forever haunted, do you?"

The plump woman gave a small hum, finger to her chin and other on her hip as she thought it over. "Well… I suppose one extra mouth to feed won't hurt anyone, you've got yourself a deal, Ms. Ghost," Rose decided finally, "Though, you'll have to wait with my son for a bit. Dinner won't be ready for another ten minutes."

"I'm fine with that, ghosts aren't picky about when they get to eat."

With that, Rose ducked back into the kitchen, still chuckling over that short little game between them as she went back to cooking and Steven resumed his tugging to get her where he wanted her to be. He started talking as he brought her to the couch.

She sat down on the couch, listening as Steven started talking about how much she'd missed out on since she'd last seen him. He'd made friends with a girl named Connie who'd moved into town during the summer, that she's really cool and Lapis should meet her one day. His cat, Lion, came home with a dead mouse yesterday.

Lapis would smile, laugh and offer some bit of commentary where she needed to. Listening attentively to his stories with her legs crossed and chin rested on a hand.

It was kind of nice being here. The Quartz-Universe family had always been warm and welcoming, and she certainly wasn't the first or last who'd found their home as some kind of safe haven from the rest of the world. Listening to Steven ramble on about his name with the enthusiasm natural to little kids, hearing the rustling of the kitchen and the occasional mew from the stubborn cat on the stairs; It made her forget for a moment her own storm of worries and thoughts. If just for a short while.

But, even she couldn't keep up a smile forever. Even if the expression didn't fall from her lips, her eyes must have given it away. Because Steven faltered in his riveting tale of one of his adventures at the Big Donut to look up at her with worry.

"Lapis, are you okay?"

She blinked at looked down at the small boy, "Oh, of course I am," she answered quickly, "Why would you think I'm not?"

He frowned and shook his head, "You just, you had a kind of sad look," he explained. He was pretty sensitive to when others were feeling down, it was kind of scary sometimes. "Did something happen? Mom said you had a run in with You-Know-Who today. Did she do something to you?"

Of course he'd worry about her, she felt a little bad for making him worry in the first place. Sighing, Lapis shook her head, "Jasper had nothing to do with it. Well, not entirely," she said, patting him on his head.

"Then what was it?"

Lapis knew better than to tell him to forget about it. When Steven wanted to know something, he could be a bit stubborn. But, how much should she tell him? Biting her lip, she looked away to the kitchen, as though Rose might be listening in. "Well… there's this girl," she began. She could just hear the stars popping up in his eyes when she said those words, and she certainly heard the small gasp and 'aw' he let out. The kid was a bit of a romantic sometimes, "We're not dating. Nothing like that," she burst his bubble rather quickly.

Waiting a moment, Lapis felt herself slump forward, "We've been hanging out a lot. Got lunch pretty often, hung out and talked almost every day. We, well, we had plans to get lunch today, and she seemed pretty normal and as she always was this morning," Lapis explained and brought a hand up to run through her hair, "But…"

"Did she bail on you?" Steven asked.

"No… well, not exactly," Lapis shook her head at that, "When I went to meet up with her, ask her if she was ready to head out for lunch or not. She… well, she was acting weird. It was pretty obvious she was lying too when she said why she couldn't make it to lunch. It was like she was afraid of me or something. And… well, it's been eating at me all day. I can't think of what I did wrong."

Steven was quiet after that, and so was Lapis. Both sitting on the couch thinking it over as Lapis fidgeted with her hands and looked at her lap.

After what felt like forever, Steven reached over and placed his small hand on Lapis' and looked up at her with an expression not fitting a little kid, but somehow fit him nonetheless. "Lapis, I'm sure you didn't do nothing wrong," he said, sure of himself in his response. "You're one of the greatest people I know. Something probably happened, but, give it some time and I'm sure everything will be normal between you two again."

He said things like that so easily. Even if they were obvious answers, coming from him it felt a bit more believable. Lapis gave a tired smile and nodded. "I hope so, Steven. I really hope so," she replied. Maybe she was just overreacting, Peridot and her would be back to their usual lunches and chats come tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the day after. Lapis sighed and looked up at the ceiling, "You're way too wise. Are you sure you're a kid?"

The boy laughed and rubbed his neck, "What can I say? I learned a thing or two from the drama's I've watched."

The two shared another laugh at that before they heard Rose calling to them from the kitchen that dinner was ready 'For my son and his ghost friend' which got a smile from both of them.

Lapis hoped as she headed to the table, trailing after Steven, that the boy was right. She wanted Peridot to talk to her like usual again, to hang out with her, she didn't want the blonde to look at her so frantic and scared like she had during that afternoon.

* * *

Late chapter and I'm sorry about that. I'll try to update more frequently again now that summer is here, but I am working on three active fics at the moment so I can't promise anything. As always, let me know what you think, if I made errors and whatnot.

On a side note, in case you didn't know yet. I've made a side blog on Tumblr for this fic, to ask questions and what not. I saw some of my favorite fics did it, so I wanted to give it a try. If you're interested, the URL is the-moon-is-beautiful-official


	11. Chapter 11

The next day, things didn't get any better between them like one might have hoped. Rather, in some ways, it got even worse than before. The following day, the day after that and so on and so on, Peridot did everything she could do just to avoid any sort of contact with one Lapis Lazuli. Keeping it to a minimum of required interactions in class. She'd come in just before the bell rang rather than early like she usually did, and as soon as the bell rang again, she was out the door and into the hall fast enough that even The Flash would have been impressed.

She rarely gave Lapis a chance to catch her before or after class, and on the days that Lapis did succeed in stopping her, Peridot would make excuse after excuse to get away. Even during her free period, she had become hard for the teacher to find and even harder to get more than a couple words of conversation in.

Her excuses were hardly believable, and with how fast she'd rush to get away compared to before; it was painfully obvious to both parties that she was avoiding Lapis like the plague. Neither of them liked this at all.

After spending the entire night away following her talk with Jasper and despite what the woman had said, Peridot had come to the decision that she couldn't, shouldn't, have these feelings for Lapis. She'd decided that the best way to solve this problem and save herself from the inevitable heartbreak and grief was to get rid of those feelings as quickly and thoroughly as she could. Avoiding the problem was the best thing she figured she could do. If she spent as little time as possible around Lapis, then this stupid crush would have to fade away. That was her line of thinking, at least.

Not that it was really making things any easier for anyone. For Lapis, all this did was eat her up inside with guilt and paranoia. Peridot was also drowning in a sea of anxiety herself, constantly torn between wanting to hang with Lapis again and trying to kill off her crush on her. With no end in sight to this ordeal, things were gradually getting worse for them.

The one thing that could be agreed on for the both of them was that this was awful.

It was killing her. The stress this was causing her was going to be the death of her. It was clear her plan to avoid Lapis wasn't bearing any results as of yet, but she hadn't any idea what else she could try. Her heart still picked up in pace whenever she saw the blue haired woman, and it hurt when she had to avoid her. Sometimes she'd catch a glimpse of hurt in those lovely blue eyes and she'd feel like she'd been stabbed in the gut.

A part of her just wished that she didn't have to avoid Lapis, that she never realized she had a crush on her. Things could still be normal between them and she could still hang out with her.

She couldn't sleep, she barely ate. She sure as Hell couldn't focus when she was in class. All Peridot wanted was for this to be done with, her feelings gone so everything could be normal again. So she could be normal again.

The blonde let out a quiet sigh to herself. She was having a hard time paying attention to the lecture her teacher was droning on about. Occasionally she could feel Pearl and Amethyst glance at her. Though she hadn't told them anything about what was going on, they'd been quick to pick up on her behavior. While neither said anything to her about it, it was clear they were growing concerned for her.

She was just glad they weren't asking questions. Peridot wasn't sure how she'd explain trying to get rid of a crush on her art teacher to them.

Once class was over, her free period before lunch would kick up and she'd be back to hiding from Lapis for two hours before she went to her next class. She hopes that Lapis wasn't going to catch her today, and would maybe start to ease up on trying to talk to her. But, she was somewhat doubtful. The woman had been growing more persistent these past couple of days and Peridot was growing worried that she'd find out where she had been hiding all this time.

She just had to be quick. It's not like Lapis would check the weight room without any reason too. She actively avoided that part of the school along with the gym and field. Never told Peridot why, but, she figured she ought to be safe from Lapis in there.

Quietly, Peridot rested her head on her desk, not even listening to the teacher at this point. God, she was such a coward. This could be done and over if she'd just go and talk to Lapis rather than hiding from her like this.

But, she was scared. Terrified, in fact. It would be too easy to screw up whatever friendship she had forged with Lapis by having a dumb crush on her and Lapis finding out. Not that she probably wasn't already with avoiding her. But, at least Lapis wouldn't hate her, or worse, think less of her for this like she was bound to do if Peridot came out and told her about these useless feelings. Lapis would do the responsible thing and ask Peridot to just cut ties with her, start treating her like a student rather than a friend or ask to have Peridot removed from her class to avoid any trouble. That would be worse than whatever outcome avoiding Lapis could produce.

The blonde must have spaced out, lost in her own thoughts and so deep in them that when the bell rang and signaled the end of class, Peridot nearly jumped right out of her skin. A few of the other students chuckled at the display, but most of them didn't pay her any mind as she hastily scrambled to stuff her books and notebooks into her bag and get out of the room as fast as she could.

Her two friends tried to call her over, but Peridot just gave Amethyst and Pearl a wave and an 'I'll talk to you later' as she rushed out of the classroom and into the packed halls. She couldn't waste any time, get out of the halls before Lapis could catch sight of her.

She didn't stop by her locker anymore during this break. At this point, she'd begun keeping her books for her next class in her bag. It saved her a couple of minutes so she could shove past some of the other students as she made her way to her hiding spot.

As the days of avoidance had turned into a week, and a week turned into two, Peridot found herself spending the two hours she usually spent with Lapis hanging around in the weight room. Sometimes Jasper was there, sometimes she wasn't and Peridot would be alone in there. During those times she would play a game on her phone or maybe play something on a portable console she brought.

When the Amazonian woman was there in the weight room the two would do light workouts just to pass the time. It started as Peridot watching Jasper work out, and eventually join her, then to being coached on simple exercises. They'd have small talk and Jasper would put her through a drastically less grueling workout compared to her gym classes. They never talked about Jaspers mysterious ex or Peridots unnamed crush.

A few gave out sharp remarks at being pushed about, but she ignored them. At the moment, the other students weren't really her concern. She wanted to get out of the halls. Right now the blonde was a sitting duck waiting to be snatched up.

Breaking through the thicker patches of students, Peridot stepped into a different hall away from the masses. There weren't that many students, just a couple that was more or less heading back to their next class. So far she hadn't seen the art teacher, so, so far so good. She wasn't that far now.

Before Peridot could take another step forward, a large, thick arm grabbed her by the shoulder stopping her in her path. She let out a startled squeak which was answered by a deep, amused laugh as the hand slowly let her go.

"Wow, you are pretty jumpy," Jasper pushed some of her white strands out of her face. She was clad in sweats, a bag over one of her broad shoulders with water and towels. "Are you on your way to the weight room?" she asked as though she didn't already know the answer to that question.

Peridot gave a small nod, "Yeah," she replied.

Jasper gave her a once over and raised a brow, "Still refusing to dress properly for this sort of thing, I see," she said, gesturing to the jeans, "But, whatever."

The two started walking down the hall, idle chatter from the other students filling the silence between the two.

Peridot waited until they turned a corner to speak up, glancing at the behemoth of a woman. Despite having spent so much time with her now during her periods of hiding, she was still quite a bit afraid of Jasper, the woman could easily snap her in two and she still had a bit of a temper. A lot of times, Peridot felt it was like walking on eggshells around her, who knew what would get her angry.

"What kind of exercise did you have in mind for us today?" she asked her.

Jasper shrugged in response, eyes staying focused in front of them as they walked, her strides so big and long that Peridot had to speed walk to keep up with her, "I figured we might work on some light endurance training. You could certainly use it, might let you last longer during gym."

Even though she said it would be 'light' training, Peridot still couldn't help the mild dread that filled her. Even the 'easy' stuff Jasper did with her was a bit intense. Maybe that was just because Peridot was out of shape.

"Well, we have two hours for that, so, hopefully, it has some rewards to it," Peridot added a bit lightly. A small chuckle was her response from the gym teacher.

"Consider it your reward when you're able to do a full pacer."

She grimaced at the mention of the activity. The pacers had always been her least favorite activity in the gym since she could remember- that and the pull-ups they had to do in front of everyone in the class. "I think I'll pass. I just got word from my doctor and I'll be sick when you make us do that," she had made her voice as monotone as she could and her expression completely blank. She was rewarded with a deep, full-bellied laugh and a rather sharp slap to the back.

"You're amusing, I'll give you that," Jasper shook her head as she spoke.

The bell had rung at this point, students would be in class, minus the handfuls that were in their free periods. The occasional light flickered above telling tale of a dying bulb as the two made their way down the hall. The two probably stuck out like sore thumbs, Peridot had to muse to herself.

The tallest teacher in the school strolling alongside one of the shortest students. The stark contrast was bound to turn a few heads, and they did get the occasional glance from students and teachers that were standing around or walking by. Well, Jasper did. Peridot doubted anyone really saw her when the gym teacher towered and blocked her from most anyone's line of sight.

Well, she did land in the crosshairs of one person, and she really wished she hadn't.

"Peridot?"

Both Peridot and Jasper came to a complete stop. Stepping out of one of the rooms was the very same woman that Peridot had been trying so desperately hard to avoid for those few weeks. The student swallowed a lump in her throat and did her best to avoid eye contact, she didn't notice Jasper tense up as well at the sight of Lapis.

The blue haired teacher took a step towards them. Her eyes on Peridot and only Peridot. But after a few moments, she let herself look to the towering companion and felt a heat boil inside her as she narrowed her eyes at Jasper. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't because she was looking at Jasper that she felt a bit of anger inside her, but because of how friendly Jasper was acting towards Peridot. She bit back the scowl that wanted the surface and instead smiled, looking back to the blonde.

"Peridot, I'm glad I ran into you," she said, taking another step towards them. "I had something I wanted to talk to you about. Can I get a minute with you, alone?" she added the last part, eyes flittering over to Jasper.

At the request, Peridot felt at a loss. "I, um," she mumbled, grabbing the strap of her bag and toying with the buttons on it warily. Could she outright refuse Lapis' request, in front of another teacher at that? She didn't want to spend time with Lapis alone, it was only going to make it harder to ignore her crush, let alone get rid of those feelings. Besides, she had a sinking feeling she knew why Lapis wanted to talk to her.

To ask and probe on why Peridot was avoiding her. If she did that, Peridot would end up fessing up whether she wanted to or not.

"Is it, um, urgent?" Peridot asked instead. Not daring to look Lapis in the face.

Lapis nodded, "Well, it's not going to end the world if we don't, but, I would like to get this out of the way right now so we don't have to worry about it later," she answered easily. It wasn't a lie, Lapis herself just wanted to get to the source of why her friend avoided her like the plague, so she could know what she did wrong and fix it as soon as possible.

Before either could say anything else, Jasper stepped up to the plate, "Sorry, Lazuli," she said curtly, hand on Peridots shoulder, "but, we were in the middle of something already. Can you save it for another day?" Before Lapis could respond, she turned to Peridot, "Why don't you go on ahead, I'll catch up with you in a minute. Okay?"

Not wanting to be there anymore, feeling anxiety clawing its way up her from the bowels of her soul, Peridot just nodded mutely and scurried down the hall to the weight room while Jasper stayed behind. Practically blocking Lapis from moving on.

When Jasper was sure that Peridot had left, she let her gaze harden on the shorter teacher, thick arms crossing over her chest as a frown took over her face.

Now, despite the stereotypes saying that all athletes were all brawn and no brain, she was by no means an idiot. She was a teacher after all, and she had still passed her own classes from high school to college with A's and B's. Looking at the scene that had just occurred, well, she'd have to be completely daft not to notice what was going on.

She could piece together the facts when they were laid out before her. Peridot had said her crush and she had gotten lunch together often. She had a feeling that Lapis hung around Peridot during lunch periods, would explain why she was never around during that hour.

Jasper was not an idiot.

"Jasper," Lapis' tone did nothing to hide the clear disdain she had facing her ex, "Can you move? I need to discuss some classwork with Peridot."

"Don't even try," Jasper cut in rather quickly, moving over to block Lapis' path when she tried to get by her. She could see plain as day that Lapis was lying, and she didn't like it one bit, "Since when did you start hanging around with children? Didn't know you were interested in the younger crowd now."

"This has nothing to do with you, back off."

Jasper felt her own temper start to boil, "In case you're forgetting, she's one of my students. It's part of my job to help keep her safe from monsters," Jasper curled her upper lip back as she stepped closer to Lapis, "Monsters. Like. You."

She could see she struck a nerve from the expression on Lapis face. A mixture of hurt, fear, and most dominant; anger.

Stepping back, Jasper crossed her arms over her chest, continuing to glower at Lapis, "I don't know what you plan to do with her, and frankly, I don't want to know," she was probably just going to toy around with the kid and toss her to the curb when she got bored. It was what Lapis always did, "but you need to back off. Peridot ain't like me; she can't take the abuse you like to inflict like I can."

Hands clenched in shaking fists and knuckles going white, it was a tremendous act of willpower that Lapis didn't bring her fist right into Jasper's awful face, "I'm not. A monster," she said in broken words between clenched teeth, "I actually tried to get better, am trying. Unlike you."

Jasper didn't buy it. After the numerous stitches and scars over the years, she got from Lapis' little tantrums, the numerous times she'd been locked out of their apartment during thunderstorms because Lapis was having a mood, after all the hospital trips… She didn't buy it for a second when Lapis said she was trying to change. Sure, she'd given the bluenette just as many beatings and hospital trips, but, she wasn't the one who started the violence that made up their relationship.

"And you really expect me to believe that?" Jasper asked, "The moment you get her in your claws, you're going to do exactly the same thing to her as you did to me; take everything out on her."

"No. I'm not," Lapis argued and then took a step forward, fists shaking even harder, nails digging in so deep that beads of blood started forming on her palms, "And where do you get off?! Huh?! You're no fucking angel here!" she snarled. It was a good thing that there weren't any teachers of students around to watch. She wanted to hit Jasper, so badly, oh so badly. But, if she did, Jasper would win.

Win what? What was she even trying to prove? That she was a better person since they'd broken up, right?

Was she really?

As though sensing the doubt that had begun bubbling up, Jasper snatched Lapis by the wrist and tugged her forward, "We don't need to change," she changed her approach, "You're never going to change, neither am I. Then shouldn't we just go back to how it was, you can hurt me to your heart's content and not worry about ever laying a scratch on Peridot because you were having a bad day!"

It was tempting. Lapis couldn't deny that it had always been tempting to go back to Jasper. What they had wasn't healthy, constantly abusing each other, but, they only ever hurt each other and no one else.

She shook her head and ripped her arm free, "No," Lapis spat, "I'm not like you." She took a few steps back from the Amazonian woman, "I'm a better person, I'm not going down that road ever again. So, just stay out of my life, and keep your nose out of my and Peridot's life. She's nothing to do with you."

She turned on her heel and stormed off, away from Jasper. To get as far from Jasper as she could. Lapis wasn't a monster, she was never going to be a monster again, Jasper was wrong. That's why she needed Peridot. The girl helped her feel like she was right.

Jasper growled as she watched Lapis go, and after a few minutes she turned and walked the other direction. Taking a deep breath, she made her way to the weight room where Peridot was waiting anxiously, fingers digging into her pants as she perked her head up at Jaspers arrival.

The gym teacher took another breath, in and then slowly out as she made her way to Peridot. "Runt, there's something we need to talk about."


	12. Chapter 12

**Authors Note:** I know, two chapters in a row, what madness is this? But, I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter. As always let me know what you think.

* * *

Her mind was a complete war zone by the time she got back. Wreckage, carnage, chaos and all around confusion. Mostly confusion.

Up until the final bell had rung, and even after, the blonde haired student couldn't shake what Jasper had told her in the weight room. It followed after her, hanging around her like a noose around her neck. Constantly repeating in the forefront of her mind. So prominent, so hyper focused on that conversation, Peridot hadn't even paid attention to anything in her class. Jaspers words just repeated themselves over and over to her.

About Lapis. Things about Lapis that Peridot would never have guessed.

It made her head spin with confusion. Doubt, worry, fear. She wasn't sure what she should feel, what she should believe. Some of what she had been told made perfect sense, while others didn't sound right at all. It was hard to grasp, maybe it was because she just didn't want to believe what Jasper had told her.

She wasn't even sure what got her worse. The fact that Jasper was Lapis' ex and that they had been in a blatantly obvious toxic relationship, or all the things Jasper said Lapis had done while in said relationship.

For the first time, Peridot finally understood the feeling of needing a good hard drink.

Ever grateful that her mother never locked the liquor cabinet, far too sure that Peridot wouldn't _dare_ touch one of her bottles to bother, or just not wanting to deal with the hassle of unlocking it whenever she got home. Peridot felt she could understand her mother just a little bit more for why she would always make a beeline to the heavy drinks whenever she was home. Life was a stressful mess that would drive anyone to drink.

Grabbing a sizable bottle from the cabinet, she closed it and made her way to the couch as she cracked open the bottle. Even now, what Jasper had told her still echoed in her mind, words, statements, accusations, yelling until her head hurt. She took a long swig of the whiskey, coughing a little as the burn ran down her throat.

 _Stay away from Lapis, for your own safety. She's not as great as she makes you think._

Peridot squeezed her eyes shut as she made herself comfortable on the couch. Drawing her knees up to her chest as she cradled the bottle in her hands.

 _Lapis is manipulative and controlling, she wants absolute control, and if she doesn't get it, she lashes out._

Honestly? She had never once seen Lapis ever get angry, and it was hard to imagine her as someone who was big on control. But, she had to admit she didn't know Lapis nearly as well as Jasper seemed to. Apparently, some of the scars Jasper had were even from Lapis' 'lash outs', the athlete said she'd thrown a vase at her once and a few plates as well.

She couldn't see Lapis doing that.

 _Lapis would get suspicious if I didn't tell her where I was, would accuse me of cheating. I'd be locked out of our own home during rainstorms. She'd throw things at me, tear me at my weak points with the right words._

 _Trust me when I say you don't want to be with her more than you have to._

But Peridot _did_ want to be with her, far too much then she should, and she hated herself for it. She wanted to, but shouldn't and she felt fucking disgusting for this stupid crush and longing she had for her own teacher.

Angrily Peridot tilted her head back and began emptying the whiskey into her mouth, ignoring the burn it left in its wake as it went down her throat.

 _She's a monster. You can't handle her, I'm the only one who ever was able to take the fits, the verbal and physical attacks._

Even after hearing Jasper's story, it pissed her off. That she'd call Lapis a monster, even after hearing Jasper talk about what Lapis did to her, she felt a swell of anger hearing her insult the blue-haired artist like that. Who was she to judge, anyway? Maybe Peridot could handle what Lapis had to dish out! Maybe she could handle it so well that Lapis wouldn't even do it! Maybe it was all lies, all the things Jasper had said about Lapis, she'd not seen Lapis act remotely like what Jasper said she was like.

She continued angrily drinking the whiskey, pulling back to cough as it went down wrong. How was her mother able to just down these things like water? Shaking that thought off, she went back to drinking. It was supposed to make the confusion go away, make her feel better, right? That's what her mother always implied it did. Maybe if she drank enough, she could stop thinking.

The problem was, though, that Peridot was a first-time drinker. She didn't have a grasp on just how strong whiskey was, nor did she have any idea of her own limits and when she should stop drinking. She just kept drinking, hoping to drink herself numb. Time eventually began to blur for her. The weather had taken a turn for a worse as it started raining, storming even, and by this point, the bottle was empty beside her and she'd cracked open another one. Atop of that, she was very, very drunk.

Unfortunately, her plan of drinking her thoughts away didn't work. The alcohol only seemed to make everything worse.

She still couldn't decide if she wanted to believe Jasper or not on what she had said about Lapis. Peridot had never seen her act violently, had never seen her as a jealous, controlling person. The woman had always shown her with respect, if not teasing her a bit much. She liked when Lapis teased her, even if she wouldn't admit it sober.

Groaning, Peridot began hitting her head with her free hand. "Shuddup," she spat at herself, "Shouldn't be thinking like that. Disgusting, she's your teacher, an't top it off, apparently an abuser too!" she scolded herself, though it was futile. Her words slurred together a bit and she let out a loud, dramatic groan as she threw herself back against the couch. "Sick… I'm sick or something," she muttered as she took a small sip of her new bottle. She wasn't even sure what kind of alcohol she was drinking now. But it didn't taste nearly as strong as the first bottle.

Even after being told by Jasper what Lapis had done, she still liked her. How messed up did she have to be to like her regardless of what she'd done, and might do to her?

"Don't know fer sure if wha Chalke...Chala...donny… fuck it, Jasp. Dunno if Jasps was being honest," she reasoned with herself. But, why would someone lie about being abused by someone? That didn't make sense, right?

Her head hurt just thinking about it. Maybe she could ask Lapis about it.

No, no, no. She shouldn't ask Lapis. Lapis might be pissed off if Peridot asked and it turned out Jasper was lying, because who wants to be accused of hurting their girlfriend… ex-girlfriend. And if it was right, maybe Lapis would lie and say that she didn't.

"Ugh, this is stupid!" Peridot yelled, throwing her hands into the air. Some of the drink sloshed out of the bottle and hit her in the face, making her let out another frustrated cry.

It took her a few minutes to calm down. In those few minutes, her phone began to buzz on the coffee table. She let the texts alerts go for a minute before rolling over on the couch. She grabbed her phone, lazily looking to see the text messages listed. It was a simple 'Answer your phone'. When she saw _Yellow Demon_ as the sender, she felt her heart stop and the bottle almost slipped from her fingers.

Sitting up quickly, she fought back a wave of nausea that washed over her at the sudden motion, and instead focused on her phone. A moment later she had it up against her ear, listening to the message her mother had left her while Peridot had been too drunk to bother answering the phone. She swallowed a hard lump in her throat, her heart beating loudly.

A few seconds passed.

A beep.

 _"Peridot, you had best have a very good reason to have not answered the phone,"_ her mother sounded very annoyed right off the bat. Not a good sign. _Never_ a good sign. Peridot's hands shook as she listened. _"I will be coming home tonight, I expect the house to be spotless when I walk through that door."_

The usual order she got whenever her mother announced her arrival ahead of time. Peridot cast a glance around the living room. It wasn't filthy but it wasn't near the high level of expectations her mother had for how clean it should be.

 _"There are some things that have come to my attention,"_ a pause, a silence, Peridot felt chills run up her spine. Her mother's tone was colder than usual. _"You and I are going to have a long talk when I arrive."_

The phone beeped. The message ended.

Though it had only been not even thirty seconds, it had still been the most chilling, jarring thirty seconds of her life.

Panic bubbled up in her chest as she listened to the message. Her mother was coming home. Her mother was _coming home_. Oh God, oh God, she didn't sound happy at all in the message. Peridot did something wrong, she fucked up somehow. Shit, shit, shit. Why now, why today? This was the worse day she could have come on.

She must have gotten a hold of Peridot's grades, noticed how they'd started to slip and was _pissed_. Maybe she knew Peridot got into her whiskey.

Didn't matter _why_ she was coming home, what mattered was that she was coming home at all. Tonight. She was going to be home tonight. It was only an hour or two of a drive, but who knew how soon she actually would be? Oh God, oh God, oh God. This was happening too fast. First, the drama with Lapis, now her _mother_ of all people was coming home!

Peridot scrambled to get off the couch. Her heart was racing. Terror coursed through her veins as she blinked back tears. She was screwed, just from the tone of Diane Diamante's voice, Peridot knew she was completely and utterly fucked. Her life was over.

Trying to control her breathing, Peridot looked desperately around the living room for an answer to her salvation. She spotted her backpack.

It had to have been the alcohol. There was no way she would have done something like this if she hadn't been as drunk as she was. But panic took over, her fight or flight instincts rearing their heads and she chose flight. She'd grabbed her backpack, raced to her room on wobbling legs and just stuffed a change of clothes into it before practically falling down the stairs on her way back down.

Her mother was going to be even more pissed off when she came home and Peridot wasn't there, but, she didn't want to know what Yellow Diamond would do if she came home and found Peridot drunk. Found that she had gotten into her alcohol.

She'd be skinned if Diane found out.

Putting on the backpack, Peridot grabbed both the empty bottle and the one she'd just opened. She'd have to dispose of them somewhere out of the house. Destroy the evidence.

Taking one last glance at the house, she opened the door and ran out into the pouring rain as fast as her legs would carry her.

* * *

Lapis had been a nervous wreck.

Since her altercation with Jasper in the hall, she was certain that the woman was going to tell Peridot about their past relationship. Not just tell Peridot, but exaggerate. Twist what had happened to pain Lapis as a villain. Lie and omit crucial facts so that the blonde would look at her with disgust and hate.

She should have just gone after Peridot instead of retreating after her argument with Jasper. She knew that Jasper wasn't going to admit to all the things she'd done to Lapis, not to Peridot, not if she wanted to keep her and Peridot apart. But, she sure as Hell would tell the blonde everything Lapis had done and ignored that Lapis had been working hard to get _better_.

The rain was pouring hard as she lingered outside the convenience store. Hands shaking in her pockets as she looked to the sky. She liked the rain, especially when she was stressed and anxious like she was today. Water always helped calm her nerves, and it did soothe her a little. Not nearly enough to cleanse her of her fear of what would happen when she saw Peridot next. But, a little was better than nothing.

She'd gone out in the rain to hit up a convenience store. It was something to do to try and clear her mind, she'd even chosen to walk rather than drive just so that she could have more time out in the rain.

Her mind was still swirling with worst case scenarios, but, she was a bit calmer than she was at home.

Whatever damage Jasper had caused, Lapis just hoped she could make amends and fix it all. She didn't want to lose whatever it was she had with the girl. Peridot was… Peridot was important to her in a way she hadn't expected her to become when she first took an interest in the blonde. She almost wanted to laugh thinking about it. When she first saw Peridot, all she wanted was to tease her, fluster her, maybe her intentions hadn't been the best at first, nor the purest for a teacher. But, now that she actually got to know Peridot, she didn't want to lose her.

Peridot gave her a reason to keep from falling back into that violent, awful pit she climbed out of. Lapis hated to admit it, but, she had a feeling that she would have ended up back in Jasper's arms and back into that awful relationship if she hadn't forged a friendship with Peridot. She wanted to be a good person for the blonde, and she didn't understand why she cared so much, but, she did.

"Just… don't let her hate me," Lapis murmured as she walked along the sidewalk, plastic bag in hand. She could take the avoidance, but she couldn't take Peridot actively hating her after whatever it was that Jasper said to her that day.

Breathing in deeply, Lapis quickened her steps down the path. She wasn't too far from home, but the rain was just coming down harder. The kind of rain that a person could easily get pneumonia in if they stayed out in it too long. The art teacher didn't have any intention of getting sick tonight.

However, as she was passing a park, Lapis found herself coming to a slow stop as she looked over at the playsets and trees. Rather, a figure slumped against one of the trees. Frowning and biting her cheek, Lapis glanced away, back in the direction she'd been walking, and then back at the figure sitting out in the rain, wondering what she should do.

Something might be wrong with them, she thought to herself, it wouldn't hurt to see if they were okay.

With that, Lapis turned and stepped into the park, cringing slightly as she felt her shoes dig into the soaked ground. But she kept walking forward, slow and cautious to the person sitting against the tree. The closer she got the more details she could make out. They were pretty small, legs drawn up against their chest as they rested their head on it, hood over their head to offer protection from the rain. Maybe a kid. It was hard to make out much more details in the dark and the rain both obscuring her vision.

"Hey," Lapis said slowly and softly, crouching down beside them, "Are you oka…" she trailed off as she noticed the messenger bag beside them. The familiar faded colors, though pretty wet from the rain, and the familiar buttons. She looked back up at the person who was now staring at her with just as surprised of an expression at seeing Lapis as she had at seeing her. " _Peridot_? What, what are you doing out here?"

The blonde blinked, glasses lenses covered in water and probably incredibly blurry at this point. She offered a small, sheepish smile, Lapis could smell alcohol on her breath, "Hey… Lapis. Fancy meeting you here."


	13. Chapter 13

Lapis could only stare at Peridot in silence, her shopping bags from the convenience store having been forgotten at her sides, no care for if the contents inside got wet from the rain. She just stared at Peridot for what felt like forever trying to understand what was going on. Mind trying to figure out why Peridot would be out here. She was just shocked to find the girl who had taken over her thoughts out here. In a storm. Drunk. She snapped out of her stupor when she saw the blonde shiver where she sat, worry and concern quickly taking the forefront of her mind. The girl was probably out in the rain far longer than Lapis, she was completely drenched from head to toe. She had to be freezing! Lapis quickly got to her knees, trying to discern any injuries on the blonde as she looked her over.

Worry filled her system, and maybe just a little bit of anger too at seeing her student and friend like this. "Peridot, are you okay?" she asked. Her response was a drunken, carefree giggle from Peridot as she slowly helped the blonde to her feet, though the young woman swayed and stumbled a little, so Lapis kept her hands on her to help keep her up.

The blonde took a moment to respond, just staring at Lapis with wide eyes, between the alcohol and the water blurring up her glasses, the teacher had to wonder just how bad her vision was currently impaired. Peridot pulled herself from Lapis' grip and shot finger guns at her. In any other situation, Lapis would have found it adorable, "I'm better than okay, Laz. I'm feeling great—whoa!" she cut herself off as she very nearly lost her balance again just from taking a few steps back. However, she managed to keep herself upright without Lapis' help this time, her bottle of whiskey was still clasped between her fingers, the sound of the liquid sloshing inside was audible even through the rain.

Lapis glanced down at the dark bottle, and then back at Peridot, at the drenched, drunken wet cat look that she had now. She hadn't a clue what Peridot was doing here, why she was drunk and where she got the alcohol from in the first place. But, there was no way she could just leave her out in this rain. Nor was she going to trust Peridot to be able to get back home safely on her own. Could Peridot even lead the way home in her state or was she too drunk to remember her way home? Lapis didn't want to risk it if it could keep them out in the rain longer than needed.

"Come on, let's go," Lapis said, gently taking a hold of Peridot by the arm and, after picking back up her bags with her other hand, she began leading Peridot down the sidewalk. She wanted to get her somewhere safe, where she could dry off and where could sober up. Somewhere Lapis could watch her so that she could make sure that Peridot was okay and stayed okay. She really couldn't help the bitterness and sour taste she got in her mouth just from thinking of what could have happened if someone other than herself had come across Peridot, drunk and vulnerable, in the rain tonight.

Thank God Lapis had found her when she did, and thank God that Peridot didn't appear hurt at all. Still, they were going to have a rather long talk when they got out of the storm about why Peridot should not be drinking, and if she still decided she was going to be drinking, why she shouldn't go wandering out in storms while drunk. For someone so smart, Peridot could be so stupid.

Peridot smiled at her and Lapis could feel her heart constrict a little and do some backflips, even drunk she had a beautiful smile. Her steps were uneven and she gave the occasional hiccup, but regardless, she was pretty willing to follow Lapis through the rain without complaint, "Where we goin'?" she asked innocently.

"Home," Lapis replied, and then as an afterthought she clarified, "my home. It's not far from here."

"Oooh! Ms. Lazuli, how forward of you!" Peridot burst out laughing as she put a hand to her chest, clearly trying to do the swooning pose but failing big time as she was unable to contain her laughter.

At the implications being made, Lapis' face turned red, feeling hot despite the chill of the rain. "Oh hush, you know I don't mean it like that," she chided, unable to look Peridot in the face.

Peridot was grinning ear to ear as she drew closer to Lapis, almost hugging her arm as she followed, "Aww, and with that my dreams are crushed." If Lapis didn't know better, she'd say Peridot was trying to flirt. But, it was just the alcohol talking. Lapis was sure it was just the alcohol talking.

She supposed that the good thing about finding Peridot where she had was that Lapis wasn't lying when she said she didn't live all that far from the park. All it took was for them to walk three or four blocks and then she was pulling Peridot through her front door and kicking off her shoes on the doormat. She wondered for a moment what her neighbors would think if they saw her taking home one of her students, but shrugged it off. Like she cared what they thought, and it wasn't like they really cared enough to keep tabs on what Lapis did.

"Just take your shoes off here, don't mind Malachite, she won't bite," Lapis directed as she pulled her jacket off and left it on the coat rack. Water dripped down from it onto. Even though she had her jacket on and zipped tight, her shirt was pretty wet and so was her pants, she'd no doubt have to change clothes. Of course, Peridot would too, she was far wetter than Lapis. "I'll get you some towels and a change of clothes, follow me."

Peridot shook her head at the offer and instead held her backpack up for Lapis to see, "No need. Got a spare set in here," she said.

"There's no way anything in there is still dry." Just from one look at the backpack, it was soaked all the way through. Lapis had her fair share of running her bags through the rain, and if Peridot had brought clothes with her in there, then they were bound to be wet. Wait… why would she even have a spare set of clothes in her bag? Lapis was going to have to ask her about that later. "I'll throw them in the dryer, but, I should have something around here you can wear."

Thankfully Peridot wasn't too argumentative about it. She put her backpack down and followed Lapis through the house. The bluenette managed to find a pair of shorts that had been too small for herself and a shirt for Peridot to use and ushered her into the bathroom along with a few towels.

"Go on and get changed, I'll be back in a minute," Lapis said from the doorway, closing the door as she left Peridot to her own devices for a minute so she could change into some dry clothes herself. Of course, the first priority was to dispose of the whiskey now that it wasn't in Peridot's hands anymore, and she was more than happy to dump the bottle into the trash on her way to her room.

Ten minutes later found Lapis and Peridot on the couch. Malachite had already come to investigate the new guest in the home and had already gotten bored; stepping off to sleep in the bedroom when Peridot showed to have nothing of interest to her.

Lapis was finding it hard to figure out what to say, how to start this conversation. She never thought she'd have to be questioning Peridot like this, after all, who in the world would have thought they'd run into Peridot drunk? But still, she had to get to the bottom of this. In the back of her mind, she realized that this could also be her chance to find out once and for all why Peridot had been avoiding her.

"Peridot," she began slowly, cautiously. She didn't want to start this off bad right away, who knew what kind of drunk Peridot could be, she'd handled enough people at the bar to know to be careful, "what were you doing out there?"

The blonde shrugged as she hugged her knees to her chest, watching the TV with interest as a bunch of chefs tried to prove themselves better than the other. "Cause I wanted too?" she offered. Lapis was sure that there was more to it. Her phone started ringing, and as Peridot pulled it out of the shorts pocket, Lapis caught a glance of the caller ID; Yellow Demon. She saw the narrowed eyes and furrow brows on Peridots face, her teeth worrying her lips as she watched the phone, not answering as it vibrated and rang. Only speaking when the phone stopped ringing and turning it on silent as she talked, "It's rain, rains nice, right? It's water, you like water, so I want to like water."

Lapis shrugged off the phone call, she could understand not wanting to answer a call when drunk, she did the same thing so many times in the past. Especially if it was someone you really didn't want hearing you talk drunk. "You're not the kind of person who'd sit down in a rainstorm just because you wanted too," Lapis pointed out instead, though the fact that she said she wanted to like water because of Lapis. It was somewhere between surprising and flattering, she wasn't sure how to describe it.

Shaking her head, she pressed on. "Did something happen?" Was it because of me? she wanted to add. A bit of guilt was gnawing at her from inside as the thought occurred to her. What if it was because of her? Because it was the only way Peridot could deal with whatever it was Jasper told her about her.

She didn't like thinking like that. But, it was a possibility. If she was the reason Peridot got drunk and threw herself out in the rain… she felt awful.

"I guess… I guess I'm not, huh?" Peridots voice was soft, but it was only a moment because she smiled, voice as loud as always as she spoke up again, "But, can't a gal try new things? I tried alcohol and I tried the rain. At least I liked one of them."

"You could have gotten sick," Lapis retorted. Just because Peridot wasn't going to give her a straight answer didn't mean she was going to give up. "You're not the drinking type, you're not the kind to make stupid choices like this," she said and then hesitated a moment, adding on after making her decision. "Peridot, why have you been avoiding me? Did I do something wrong? Is this because I did something?"

The blonde fell silent. Her entire posture had gone stiff at the question, as though it was the last question she even wanted Lapis to ask. Her nails curled into her legs, digging into her borrowed shorts as she stared at the TV without a word. Her discomfort was clear, and Lapis regretted asking her that question since this was the result of it all.

"Peridot, are you okay?" Lapis asked, turning her entire body to face the blonde, "I'm sorry, look, you don't have to tell me right now."

Yeah, she wished Lapis hadn't asked that question. It wasn't something she really wanted to admit to the blue haired woman just yet. Peridot looked up and swallowed dryly. Okay, no, she was lying to herself. She wanted to answer Lapis question, really, she did. She wanted so badly to just tell her that 'hey, sorry I was avoiding you like the plague, it's just because I'm in love with you', but, well, she wasn't the most articulate when drunk and handling feelings. The butterflies that Lapis still managed to put in her even now wasn't helping her all that much either. She wanted to tell her, she just couldn't get the words to come out.

She glanced at Lapis, at the worry that was on her face at seeing Peridots unease. She felt her insides heat up and turn to goop. Lapis had always been pretty, and she seemed even more so. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but, well, just looking at Lapis she could feel her unease start to calm. She liked looking at pretty things, and Lapis was the prettiest one in this house. It was so easy to just get lost in looking at Lapis right now, and it was so hard to look away.

Her blue eyes were so beautiful if Peridot was being honest, and she was pretty honest right now, they were the most breathtaking shade she'd ever seen. She could stare at them for hours and never get bored. Her skin was flawless, smooth and soft. Peridot found her eyes dipping lower, to the plump lips she'd dreamed and desired to cover with her own.

She couldn't trust herself to use words to answer Lapis' question. But there was a different way to convey it all. If there was ever a chance. She'd rather do this now and brush it off as a drunken act of stupidity later when she was sober then spend forever wishing she'd not backed out of it.

"Peridot?" Lapis asked again. The blonde had been staring at her silently and she was a little concerned if she was okay. "Are you spacing out or whmph!"

She never got a chance to finish because Peridot had leaned in, quickly cutting her off as she captured Lapis' lips with her own. Small hands came up to grab Lapis by the arms, holding onto her but just loose enough that if Lapis wanted to she could break out of with ease and push the blonde away.

She didn't push her away. Lapis' mind had gone blank for a moment, eyes wide in surprise as she felt the younger woman's lips against her own. Feeling the blonde so close to her. Kissing her. It was like her mind had to go through a reboot system, and when it finished, she was hyper-focused on what was happening.

Peridot was kissing her. Peridot was kissing her. Peridot was kissing her.

Before she could even do anything, Peridot pulled away. Her face red, her eyes hazy, her breathing a little uneven. Yet she was watching Lapis, eyes laced with a tinge of fear, looking for something, anything from Lapis. Her grip on Lapis growing weak, like she was torn between letting go or holding onto her.

Lapis could feel her heart beating fast, her pulse a drum in her ears. Her face was burning. Her mind was screaming at her. She shouldn't want this. Shouldn't do this. Shouldn't have enjoyed the kiss as much as she did. But she couldn't find it in her to listen to her brain, she knew what she wanted, who she wanted.

Lean arms wrapped around Peridot, pulling her close, holding her tight with no intentions to let go as Lapis dragged the blonde into another kiss.


	14. Chapter 14

**Authors Note:** It's almost 2 AM here and I need to be at work at 8 AM and I'm here writing fanfiction. I am such a good adult and great at keeping my priorities straight! But, as always, let me know what you think!

* * *

The kiss was something else entirely. It was everything. Mindblowing. Electrifying.

With her hands on Peridots hips, Lapis continued to kiss her as Peridot wrapped her own arms around Lapis' shoulders, gripping onto her shirt and holding onto her like she was a life line and she never wanted to let go. Lapis pulled back just enough to give them both a moment to breathe before she dived back down, barely giving either any rest from the kiss before starting it anew.

The kiss, it felt like a sense of 'finally' was between them. As though this had been something long awaited for the both of them. Lapis found that she absolutely loved how soft Peridots lips were, loved the way they felt against her own. Though the taste of alcohol was still there she could taste the hint of cherry on them, maybe some chapstick?

While the kiss had started out as slow, as a gentle and sweet kiss bathed in innocence, it didn't take long for comfort to settle in and for them to get bolder. Their kiss started to become rough, sloppy, _intense_. Desire began to boil within the both of them.

Without breaking the kiss, Lapis pushed Peridot backward onto the couch so that the smaller of them was laying down. She crawled atop of her, cupping her cheeks as she continued to kiss and Peridot gripped her shoulders hard and pulled her closer until Lapis was practically laying on her. Need and want was bleeding into the kiss as they clung desperately to one another.

Every kiss Lapis had shared with Jasper amounted to _nothing_ compared to here and now. While the ones she had with her ex had been aggressive and rough; possessive on both ends, this was something else. The emotion and passion behind their kiss, it wasn't born out of something awful, a desperation to own and possess and control. It was something better.

Hands slowly roamed each other's forms. Their bodies both heating up as blood rushed and arousal hit them both. The kiss was growing hungrier and Lapis slowly pulled away from the kiss to begin trailing them elsewhere. Her lips traced the gentle line of Peridot's jaw and down her neck. Kissing gently until she found a soft spot and without thinking she sank her teeth into it.

The sound Peridot made when she did that caused a shiver to run down her spine and excitement to course through her. She wanted more. She wanted Peridot. Wanted to claim her, make her hers, love her, everything.

Now wasn't the time though, she hated to admit.

She felt Peridots fingers running up and down her back, nails scratching her skin through her shirt. Reluctantly Lapis ended it, it was gradual as she slowly trailed butterfly light kisses back up Peridot's neck and laid a few more chaste brushes to her mouth. Even more reluctant was she to pull away.

Both were panting slightly for breath, their faces very red and a hazy look was in their eyes when it ended.

Lapis stayed on her, hovering over her smaller body as Peridot's arms stayed wrapped around her, neither wanting to move as they just stared at one another in silence. Both were trying to find something to say, to think, their minds desperate to catch back up to them after the heated moment they had just shared.

"So…" Lapis said slowly after a minute had passed. She was still looking at Peridot and only Peridot. Getting lost in those deep green eyes, she never wanted to look away. A playful smile appeared on her face, it was small but it was there,"This isn't by chance the whole reason you were out of nowhere doing everything you could to avoid me, is it?"

The blonde looked away, her blush deepening, but she nodded anyway. She must have sobered up a little by this point from the time that had passed and by the kiss, "I… yeah," Peridot admitted quietly, unable to meet Lapis' eyes. She was fidgeting under Lapis, her hands, still wrapped around the older woman, unconsciously tightened their hold on her, "I may have… I have a… I started liking you… more than a friend… I thought It would go away if I avoided you, but it didn't. I still really, really like you."

Lapis could feel something in her heart swell. Something warm filled her and a smile covered her face. She felt so giddy now, it was a big ball of relief that _this_ was why Peridot was avoiding her. It wasn't because Lapis did something wrong and screwed up, it wasn't because Peridot hated her. She wanted to laugh. It was because she liked Lapis

Lapis dropped her weight onto Peridot, lying atop her as she wrapped her arms around Peridot waist and buried her face into the girl's neck. "If it's any consolation," she said, and couldn't help but nuzzle into Peridot, breathing in her scent as she felt herself relax. "I feel the same."

"Y-you do?" Peridot repeated, her voice giving way to disbelief.

The bluenette grinned as she pushed herself up again so that she could look Peridot in the face. She smiled at her, her expression full of warmth and love as she stared at the blonde beneath her, "I wouldn't have kissed you if I didn't," she remarked. It was true, that kind of kiss… it wouldn't have happened if Lapis didn't feel anything for Peridot.

She could see emotions flashing across Peridots face, could see how it practically lit up with joy as she realized what it all meant. Lapis felt her heart soar when Peridot started laughing, pulling the artist close as she buried her face into her.

"I can't believe- this is- stars!" Peridot couldn't even bring out complete sentences as she babbled.

Her joy in the moment was rather contagious and Lapis soon found herself joining in the laughter, holding onto Peridot just as tight as the two pressed against one another on the couch, they might as well have been a pair of giggling teens who were just shot by Eros' arrow.

But all good things had to come to an end, and theirs was a shattering crash to their joy by the blaring noise of a phone going off.

Peridot all but locked up under Lapis as her eyes turned to her phone on the floor. It must have fallen down during their kiss when neither would have noticed. It vibrated angrily and screamed at them. For the second time that night the caller ID of _Yellow Demon_ was flashing on the screen and a sense of dread seemed to cover Peridot's entire form.

"Peridot?" Lapis asked slowly, bringing her hands to cradle Peridot's cheeks and make her look at her, trying to offer some comfort. What was wrong? She wanted to ask, she wanted to know why this call was so visibly upsetting the girl, and who it must have been to call twice in less than ten minutes.

She swallowed, eyes never leaving the phone, "My mother…" she answered.

Neither said anything as they watched. The phone continued to ring but after a minute or so it died down as 'Missed Call' took the screen resting below the previous missed call notification on her phone. But, the silence only lasted a few seconds as the phone started ringing again as _YD_ was listed as the caller once more.

Lapis frowned as she looked at Peridot, watched her as her phone continued to ring. Peridot was trembling under Lapis, the fear coursing through her painfully clear to see as she stared at her phone. Lapis was sure that if the room wasn't so dark, she would see that Peridot had gone pale. Even though she was watching from a different perspective with a different person and scenario, was all too familiar in the most painful way possible.

Rolling off of Peridot, Lapis snatched the phone from the ground on an impulse. Peridot's eyes widened and she made a desperate attempt to grab at it. "Lapis!" she yelled but the rest became muffled as Lapis pressed her hand over Peridots mouth to silence her. She looked at Peridot, quietly, mutely asking for trust as she pressed the answer button and brought Peridots phone to her ear.

 _"Oh, so nice of you to finally answer. What have I told you about making me waste my time to call you over and over? You pick up on the first ring, you're_ not _to make me call more than once,"_ An older woman spoke as soon as the call was answered. Her voice was completely level, but the anger still there, and though Lapis could not see her face, she could easily imagine the angry scowl on her face. She felt a different kind of shiver run up her spine this time.

Lapis swallowed and then spoke up, "Hello? This is Ms. Olivine… right? Peridot's mother?" she thanked whatever God that was looking out for her that she was a pretty young teacher. She could easily pass off as a high school student with her voice still.

There was a pause, silence, Peridot was staring at her with complete terror but she stayed as quiet as a mouse.

After a few beats, the woman on the other end spoke up. Her every word was cold and calculating. " _It's Diamante, not Olivine_ ," she answered, " _And who might you be? Even more important would be why you are on my daughter's phone. Where is she?"_

"I'm her friend from school! Bobby Jones! She's at my house," Lapis lied as she looked over at Peridot, "We share most of our classes at school so she was going to sleep over at my house tonight and we'd study together for some upcoming tests." Hopefully, her mother didn't try to look up a 'Bobby Adams' to make sure it was right. But even if she did, Jones was a seemingly common surname.

" _I see_." It was clear that Ms. Diamante wasn't exactly _pleased_ with Lapis' answer and lie, " _If you could hand the phone off to my daughter, I'd very much appreciate speaking with her."_

Lapis looked over to Peridot again. It was so clear that she wanted to do anything but talk to her mother. Lapis couldn't blame her, she wouldn't want to talk to Ms. Diamante either if she was in her shoes. "Sorry, she's in the shower right now, I'm only talking because she asked me to basically be a secretary and take a message for her," she rolled her eyes, faking a huff of playful annoyance like she was pretending to be mad at her friend.

There was a pause, she could hear a chair creaking on the other end and a bottle clinking softly against a hard surface. For a moment she wondered if Ms. Diamante was still there, but after a while, the woman spoke up again. " _Very well. I will allow this just this once,"_ she said, there was a warning tone to her voice. Clearly saying that this wasn't going to fly a second time, and Lapis had no doubt about that, " _Tell Peridot that I expect her home no later than noon tomorrow. Understand?"_

"Yes, ma'am," Lapis answered without missing a beat. There was something about that woman's tone that it made her wary of disobeying and disrespecting her in any way. She could easily imagine this woman as some kind of military leader matriarch to a race of alien soldiers. "Well, um, her phones about to run out of juice, so if there's nothing else you want to add, I'm going to hang up, okay?"

She wasn't given an answer. The line was cut dead as Peridot's mother beat her to the cut and hung up herself. Lapis stared at the phone and then looked back at Peridot who stared at her in a mix of fear and awe. A moment passed and Lapis laughed a little.

"Well… one way to meet the parents," she tried to joke.

Peridot let out a long groan and flopped back, covering her face with her hands, "I can't believe you just did that," she said, "You just… you lied to my mother and she believed it. I don't know which is scarier."

The woman placed the phone on the coffee table and stretched out to lay atop Peridot. She could feel the blonde's heart racing under her, she wanted to think it was from the close proximity between them, but, she knew it was from the call and conversation with her mother. "I mean… your mom is certainly not someone I want to meet in a dark alley at night. But, it could have gone worse."

"Yeah, can't argue with that," Peridot agreed, a yawn broke through as she said that.

Sitting up, Lapis smiled as she looked down at her friend… well, were they really just 'friends' now? "Looks like someone's sleepy," she commented as she pulled Peridot up, "C'mon, let's get you to bed."

Peridot colored a little as she was pulled to her feet, "Are you sure I can stay here for the night?"

"Of course!" Lapis answered quickly, "I sure as hell am not throwing you back out there into the rain, nor am I feeding you to that lion of a mom. You're sleeping here tonight and that is fine."

She half led and half dragged Peridot down the hall, pushing the door to her room open and bringing the blonde inside it. Laughing, she flicked the lights on and brought a hand to the back of her head, "Honestly, never thought I'd be showing you my room," she said and let go of Peridots hand, "But, here it is, this is where your favorite artist sleeps. Among other things," she added that last part with a little eyebrow wiggle.

Peridot's face heated up and she lightly pushed Lapis, "Grow up!" she yelled as Lapis started laughing, "But, I can sleep on the couch, it won't be a problem."

Walking over to the bed, Lapis looked up at Peridot and raised a brow, a playful smile on her face, "and what if I don't want you to sleep on the couch?" she asked in response, patting the space next to her on the bed, "come on. We've already made out, sleeping next to each other won't kill us."

Peridots face was still red, but she complied. Walking over, she slipped her glasses onto the small bedside nightstand before she got onto the big bed and slipped under the covers at Lapis' insistence. Lapis grinned as she rolled over onto her side and wrapped her arms around Peridot, tugging her over closer, "Come on, no need to lay so far away," she said as she pulled Peridot close and against herself, cuddling against the smaller girl happily.

The blonde grumbled something unintelligible, but her arms hooked around Lapis as she pressed her face against the older woman's shoulder. Clearly not unhappy with this position as she made no move to push away from her.

Peridot fit so perfectly against Lapis and in her arms. The blue haired woman never ever wanted to let her go. It was hard for her to believe that it took so long for this to ever happen and that the night could have so easily never ended like this. But, through chance and fate, they wound up here. Whatever it was that they were now and whatever it was that was now between them, Lapis never wanted to give it up.

For the first time in a good while, Lapis could truly say that she was happy. Happy having Peridot in her arms like this. Happy to have kissed Peridot. To know how Peridot felt about her, to be able to talk to her again to be able to do so much more with her now. To be… this with her. Whatever 'this' was.

It wasn't common, sure, but it was right. All of this felt right, like all the pieces of a puzzle coming together kind of right. Like getting every question on a test correct kind of right.

Lapis could feel her chest growing warm, filling up with something so intense and so strong as she stared at the fluffy blonde hair and light skin of the girl who had quickly fallen into a slumber against her. She was so small, so vulnerable, precious and just… beautiful. Lapis couldn't help the smile that was making its home on her face as she just watched Peridot sleep.

Peridot was something else, she was different from the others. Lapis had noticed that from day one. The moment she set her eyes on Peridot, she had caught Lapis interest, even if it wasn't for the best of reasons. But that interest is what drove Lapis to interact with Peridot so much, and those interactions had led to these feelings she'd gained for her.

Her heart fluttered as she thought back to the kiss. Warmth stirring up deep inside her as she thought of how it had gone from innocent to intense so quickly. She slowly reached up to press a couple of fingers to her lips. She could still faintly taste Peridot on them. She hoped that this meant she could kiss Peridot more from now on.

Reaching back down, she tugged Peridot closer, feeling her own eyelids growing heavy. Sleep was beckoning her as well, and though she wanted to spend more time watching the girl who'd managed to win so much of her affection, she didn't mind sleeping so long as she could keep Peridot in her arms the whole night.

Smiling, she dipped her head down and nuzzled against Peridot, happy to cuddle with her in the dead of night. She could feel Peridot breathing gently, quietly against her, and it was like a lullaby that lulled her deeper and closer into sleep's embrace as she slowly began to fade away to the land of dreams. The last thought she had before she finally passed out. God damn, she was in love with this small dork, wasn't she?


	15. Chapter 15

The car came to a slow stop, parking beside a line of shops downtown. There weren't too many people out and about on the sidewalk or in the stores. The sun was shining brightly above in contrast to the rainstorm the city got hit with last night. All traces of the rain were gone, the sidewalk dry and not a wet spot to be seen.

Lapis gnawed on her lower lip as her fingers tapped on the steering wheel at a staccato tempo. Glancing over to the blonde in the passenger seat, she felt a bit of worry twist in her gut. "I could drive you all the way home, it won't be a problem," she offered and then, after a moment of thought, "I could call your mom, too, say that we're running a bit late to give you more time away from her." It was painfully clear that Peridot didn't want to have to deal with her mom at all today and Lapis wanted to do what she could to help her out here.

The girl shifted uneasily in her chair and shook her head, "No… that'll only make things so much worse," she said. "Here is fine, um, thank you."

The artist offered a weak smile as she reached over to take a hold of Peridots hand in her own, "Okay, got it. Just text me when you can so I know everything's okay," she said, rubbing her thumb over the back of Peridot's hand in a soothing manner, "it's going to be okay. Don't worry about it."

"Easy for you to say," Peridot said with a sardonic smile, "You've never met her before. She sounded pissed."

"You're going to be okay," Lapis pressed again, looking her right in the eyes. "Just, come here, get over here," she took hold of Peridot by the shoulder, leaning over the middle piece of the car as she drew Peridot closer. She pressed her forehead against Peridots for a moment and then leaned closer to give her a gentle kiss on her lips.

Peridot melted into the soft kiss, bringing her hands up to bury themselves in Lapis' blue hair as she pressed against the woman's lips in return, eyes fluttering closed. Lapis could taste her, she tasted like-amazing, cherry lip balm and a hint of mint toothpaste from this morning. She moved her hand to cup the back of Peridot's neck, her mouth complying gently against Peridot's own trembling lips. Just like their first, they could feel the electricity rushing through them. She didn't want the kiss to ever end.

The kiss felt like an eternity but lasted only a few seconds before Lapis drew back with a kind smile on her face.

"Go on, get out of here," she said, giving Peridot a playful shove on her shoulder, "Whatever happens when you get home, don't let it get to you and just call me later, okay?"

Peridot nodded slowly, leaning in to kiss her once more. Lapis complied easily, happily even. "Try not to drink anymore when you get home, okay?" Lapis said as she pulled away, grinning a little, "I don't want to have to find you drunk again, I much rather prefer you sober."

The younger of them blushed brightly, "Trust me. No more alcohol," she said, shaking her head as she spoke, "I'm lucky the headache and hangover aren't too bad."

"You lucked out, I wish I was that lucky my first time drinking."

Peridot offered a little smile, sneaking one last kiss before she grabbed her bag and hopped out of the car. "I'll talk to you later!" she yelled, hoisting her bag over her shoulder and waving Lapis goodbye.

The teacher waited a few seconds, waving back, blowing a kiss before she drove away.

Waiting for a little while, Peridot stayed on the sidewalk until Lapis was out of sight. When she saw the car turn the corner, she heaved a sigh. Her energy from the kiss gone rather quickly now that Lapis wasn't there anymore. She adjusted her grip on her bag as she turned on the sidewalk and looked the way opposite of her way home.

She _could_ just walk somewhere else. Maybe avoid meeting with her mother altogether. No… no like she told Lapis, it would only make things worse. Her mother was likely going to be in a poor mood, to begin with, if she made her wait any longer before coming home, her mother could very well fly into a fury of some kind.

The risks greatly outweighed the rewards when her mother was involved.

She could feel a shudder up her spine just thinking of how angry her mother could be. She was lucky enough to only see her mother angry, truly angry, just a few number of times. It just, it wasn't a risk she wanted to take, it wasn't something she wanted to face.

With trepidation and fear deeply seeded in her heart, Peridot began the walk home.

* * *

It didn't take very long. Twenty minutes at most before Peridot made it home. She could see her mother's fancy and a sleek black car parked right in the driveway. Her fear grew as she tried not to give in to her instinct to just flee. Slipping in through the door, she left her shoes at the doorway and quietly made her way into her own home. Though at the moment it felt like an execution room rather than a home now that mother dearest was home.

She padded in quietly, hoping that maybe her mother had gone out and the car was just there to deceive her. But that was proven wrong when Peridot stepped into the living room and was met with sharp yellow eyes. Her mother's face was upturned into a frown, brows narrowed down with clear displeasure on her face. She was seated on the couch, still dressed in one of her business outfits and her legs crossed as she held a glass of wine in one of her hands.

It wasn't even noon yet, and yet her mother had already cracked open a bottle of wine. Who knew how much of it she had already drunk. That was always the first sign that things were not going to be good for Peridot.

Her mother was the exact opposite of Peridot. She was tall, standing well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a sharp jaw. Her hair was short, but unlike Peridot's own short mess of hair, her's was kept in control, tamed and perfected. Her eyes were always cold, always angry or disinterested. It was sometimes hard to believe that they were related. Diane Diamante; Yellow Diamond was a hard person, firm and strong while Peridot was soft, weak and malleable. Traits that had gotten her no end of criticism and verbal lashings from her mother.

"Peridot," Diane Diamante-Olivine greeted. Her voice was cold, an authoritative, distant tone like she was talking to some distasteful employee she was eager to be rid of. It lacked any sort of warmth one would expect a mother to hold after seeing her only daughter again after months of being apart. It showed just how little Peridot likely meant to Diane in that one word and tone.

It sent shivers up Peridots spine.

The girl in question quietly stepped forward, further into the living room like she was walking into a lion's den. Moving like an obedient, timid puppy with its tail tucked between its legs. Her head was ducked down, staring at the floor and unable to look her mother in the face lest whatever assurance she had would crumble. She could feel shame rushing through her, not that she knew what it was she was ashamed of. Just that she knew that she must have done _something_ wrong that her mother expected her to feel shame for.

"Chin up!" the tall woman barked and Peridot felt herself flinch at the raised voice. "I've told you time and time again about that horrid posture of yours! Straighten your back and don't you dare look at the ground when I'm talking to you," she ordered.

She did as she told, but looking up at her mother's face, the clear dislike on her expression, Peridot felt something awful twisting in her gut. Dread and guilt. Dread for what was bound to be coming and guilt for whatever it was that she had done wrong. She swallowed, her hands shaking just a little.

Her mother did not break eye contact as she took her wine glass and gave herself a long sip of the dark red liquid. She waited for a second, and then another. It felt like she was sizing Peridot up, weighing her worth and her everything as she stared at her own daughter. After what felt like eons, she reached over with her free hand to a small pile of papers stacked nicely beside her. She picked them up and held them out to the small blond. Holding them between her fingertips lightly as though she were holding something filthy that she wanted to touch as little as possible.

"Mind explaining to me what _this_ is all about?"

Her question was cold, but Peridot could just fear the traces of anger in her voice. She carefully stepped closer to take the papers from her mother, to read them over as Diane drank from her glass of wine.

They were papers from the school.

More specifically. They were Peridot's grades and notes from some of her teachers.

She could feel in that instant her heart drop and her own death sentence being written out as she saw what some of her teachers had said and what her grades were. She could feel her mother staring at her with judging eyes as the papers shook in her hands. Her grades were supposed to be A's all the time. Every grade had to be an A. Her mother would accept nothing less from Peridot, she barely accepted straight A's.

Peridot's grades had dropped. Quite a bit.

She had several B's, a couple of C's and just one lone A. There were copies of her quiz and test scores as well, and she had gotten mostly C's on them as of late. Her teachers had left notes about how Peridot had been spacing out quite a lot recently, was clearly not paying attention in her classes. Little observations they'd made of her drop in performance.

No wonder her mother was so displeased today.

"I hope you have an explanation for this," Yellow Diamond said slowly, "and it had better be a good one. I had to drive all the way back home because of this, wasted time and money that you've caused."

Peridot ducked her head down but quickly looked back up at her mother could snap at her again, "I… um, there's been a l-lot," she began, stammering in her nervous state.

Her mother cut her off again with a pointed look, "Quit that stuttering of yours! You're a grown woman, not a babbling child!"

She barely held back a yelp in response, furiously nodding her head as she swallowed. "There's been a lot of, I've been overwhelmed a lot this semester," she said. It wasn't a lie, but not quite true either. "Classes are getting harder and I was having trouble staying afloat with a lot that's happening. That's why I was studying with a friend last night."

Her mother stared at her, taking a sip of her wine before standing up. She easily towered over Peridot, and the way she looked down on her made Peridot feel even smaller than she already was.

"Your recent behavior is unacceptable," she said slowly. "I will not have an idiot for a daughter, you know this." the words cut through Peridot and she allowed herself to look at the ground, guilt, and shame growing stronger in her. Her mother watched her for a few seconds before she continued on talking, "Since you've become incapable of managing your own schedule and handling school on your own, I'm having my assistant stay here and keep you in line until your grades come back up and your behavior improves."

Peridot looked up at that, confusion rushing through her, "I… what? Your assistant?" she asked her slowly.

Yellow Diamond nodded and began walking away to the kitchen, to put her wine glass in the sink no doubt, or perhaps to refill it. "Yes. She will be here shortly, she had business back in Empire City to take care of. I'm giving her a paid leave of absence while she babysits you," she explained, Peridot following her on her heels, "She will be reporting back to me if you do anything… displeasing. So you are to be on your best behavior."

Her mother dumped the glass into the sink and brushed past Peridot as she went to retrieve her coat, "I have a company to run so I'll be off. I want you to bring your grades back to A's before this term is over. You understand?" She said and as she slipped her heels back on, she lingered at the door, "Oh, and one more thing. That friend of yours… Bobby, was it?" she asked.

Peridot perked up at that, "The one I was with last night?" she asked her, "Um… what about her?"

"I don't want you spending time with her. Or that Amethyst girl either. They'll only get in the way of your studies and they're not worth your time anyway. I'd advise you to cut your ties with them."

With that, the door slammed shut and Peridot was alone in her home once again.

She could feel her heart racing like she had just run a marathon. Her body felt cold, it was shaking with the adrenaline and fear that always resulted when she had these brief meetings with her mother. She wanted to laugh, her mother had only spoken to her for five minutes and then she was going back to work. Taking a deep breath, she moved to the living room and collapsed onto the couch.

That was… terrifying for her.

Rolling over, she held out her phone and opened up her apps until she found her contacts. A few clicks later and she'd brought up Lapis' name. She hesitated at the call button and settled on texting as she brought it up and quickly typed up a short message.

 ** _(Peridot):_** _Meeting with the mother is done. I'm alive. Somehow._

She watched her phone and it only took a minute before the text bubble popped up and shortly after Lapis' reply was in there as well.

 ** _(Lapis):_** _How'd it go? Are you okay?_

The concern that she had, it brought a smile to Peridot's face. Yeah, it was fine if her mother treated her so distantly, so harshly. At least she had Lapis, right? She could feel butterflies in her stomach as she thought of the woman.

 ** _(Peridot):_** _I'm alive_

 ** _(Peridot):_ **_Mother wasn't too pleased with my grades. I've a babysitter now._

Just thinking of that left a bad taste in her mouth. She'd never even _met_ this woman who was her moms new assistant. All she knew of her was what Diane had told her when bragging about the girl. All she could think of what this woman was like was that she was bound to be a miniature version of Yellow Diamond.

 ** _(Lapis):_ **_Yikes. Well, don't worry about your grades, you're still plenty smart_

 ** _(Peridot):_** _You sure know how to sweet talk a girl, Laz_

 ** _(Lapis):_** _It's an art_

Peridot laughed a little as she held the phone to her chest. She could feel her earlier fear and anxiety from just minutes ago after talking with her mother easing away. She felt calmer now that she was talking to Lapis. The artist always had that effect on her. She was so sweet. Peridot really was lucky, wasn't she?

She took her phone again and started typing up a reply, trying to think of something witty and smooth to bring to Lapis, but was distracted by a knock on the front door. Frowning, she looked over to the door, if that was her mother's assistant, then that was pretty fast.

 ** _(Peridot):_** _BRB someone's at the door_

She slipped her phone back into her pocket and got off the couch. Making her way to the doorway, she hesitated as she touched the knob. Maybe she could pretend no one was home and avoid dealing with this assistant altogether?

No, she would just report it back to her mother, and then she'd have Yellow Diamond breaking down the door.

There wasn't really any way out of this, was there? Feeling dread bubbling up in the pit of her stomach, she slowly opened the door to the woman on the other side. "Hello, how can I help you?" she said, trying to be polite as she greeted the woman.

The one who was on the other side of the door, she was younger than Lapis by maybe two or three years by the looks of it. She was tall like Pearl and had a similar nose to her as well, though her skin was slightly darker. Her bright blonde hair was styled in an updo and she had a kind of smile that showed all her pearly white teeth.

"Hello! It's nice to meet you, you must be Peridot Diamante, right?" the woman held out her hand, her smile far too chipper for a first meeting. Peridot didn't have the guts to correct her that she didn't like to go by Diamante, and preferred 'Olivine'. "My name is Marigold, I'm your mother's assistant, and I'll be helping you out until your grades are up again."

Peridot awkwardly took hold of her hand, "Um, hello, it's nice to meet you."

* * *

 **Authors Note:** The Yellows have arrived. Yellow Diamond has won Best Mom award and Yellow Pearl makes her first apperance.

As I said a while back on my Tumblr. I'm just going to focus on this fic and Society's Broken So Grab Some Glue for a while, so hate to say it but don't expect too many updates from Homeworlds Police Department or We'll Burn it All Down until one of these is finished. Feel free to check out that fic if you're interested in a Lapis centric (Lapidot shipped) supernatural murder mystery.


	16. Chapter 16

**Authors Note**

Sorry for the long wait, but here is the long awaited update! I do hope you all enjoy it.

* * *

Honestly, Marigold reminded Peridot of Pearl a lot. Not only did she look like she could be her long lost twin or something (That is if you ignore the bright blonde hair, the darker skin and the snobbish attitude that Peridot already couldn't stand). She had the same compulsive need for everything to be in order, that everything had its own place and that she herself needed to be the pinnacle of prim, proper and perfect.

At the same time, she was a lot like Peridots mother, too. In attitude, in presence. It was like if Pearl and Diane Diamante got together to have a baby.

That idea kind of made Peridot cringe.

After she had greeted Peridot and introduced herself, Marigold had wasted absolutely no time bringing her luggage to the guest room and claiming it as her temporary lodging as she stayed with Peridot. She'd spent a good portion of an hour inside that room, moving things around, laying out her own belongings and Peridot was sure that if she dared to peek into the room, it would have looked nothing like it had before. But, honestly, the student didn't really want to step into this woman's room, she had a feeling it would just have far too much yellow in it for her liking, anyways.

Knowing that she'd get an earful if she just up and left while this guest of hers was unpacking, Peridot just plopped herself on the couch and started playing on one of her handheld consoles to pass the time. She was so engrossed in her game that she hadn't even heard Marigold leaving the room or walking down the halls, something that she normally would have noticed from the click-clack of her sharp heels. It was only when the shadow of Marigold was cast over her that Peridot was drawn from her trance and looked away from the screen to lock onto her focused gaze.

"If you would kindly put the game away, I'll go over the house rules with you," Marigold said as she crossed her arms over her chest, her stance a clear sign of asserting her dominance, to show to Peridot that she was in charge here, that she wouldn't let anything slide by.

It looked like she'd learned how to imitate Peridot's mother quite well form her time serving her. Peridot couldn't help but almost feel a shiver run up her spine, feeling like she was under the scrutinizing gaze of her mother, not her mother's assistant, almost. Marigold still had a long way to go before she matched the same ruthless intensity that her mother possessed.

Quietly, Peridot tucked her game onto the couch cushion beside her and straightened up in her seat to look up at Marigold, tucking her hands onto her lap as she waited quietly. She might as well be as well behaved right now as she could, no doubt Marigold would report anything and everything back to the Diamante matriarch if she didn't act right during their very first meeting.

Marigold let out a quiet hum and nodded her head, "Yes, well, as I'm sure you know, this arrangement is because you've allowed your grades to slip. Not just that, but Miss Diamante has grown concerned that you're not focusing on your studies and are rather getting involved in frivolities around town," she began. Peridot wanted to roll her eyes. Yeah, her mother was 'concerned' alright, concerned for what sort of backlashes might hit her own reputation if Peridots own started to fall. She kept her mouth shut on that, however, and Marigold continued, "So, until your grades have improved and your mother is sure that they won't fall again, I'll be staying with you to ensure that happens."

She pulled out a notepad and Peridot could see in small, neat handwriting a list was written down on it. The young woman cleared her voice before she began reading off of it.

"You are to be back here every night by eleven, unless you call me ahead of time and explain the circumstances pertaining to your tardiness," she stated, glancing at Peridot, "that should keep you from wasting the night away with parties and the such. Not that I can see you being the type to go to them, but it never hurts to take precaution." Peridot just shrugged, not finding it in her to confirm or refute the notion of her being a partying type. That was more of Amethysts thing, not hers.

The rules went on, Marigold reading from them like she was reading from a dictionary. Some were strict, some were average. It was clear that it was Peridot's mother who wrote them, not Marigold herself. It just reeked of her mother.

She had to let Marigold know where she was going if she went somewhere other than home and school, had to let the woman know who she was with. Had to get the OK from Marigold first before she could even go anywhere other than school and home. No gaming unless all her schoolwork was done, no TV unless everything was done. It was made very clear, too, that her mother wanted her to limit her time with her 'less than reputable friends'. Which basically meant that if she wanted to hang out with Amethyst she had to be sneaky about it. Her mother never really liked Amethyst, so it wasn't a surprise. Peridot had to come straight home after school, too, if she's staying in school for after school reasons, she has to call Marigold to let her know and let her know how long she will be.

Peridot was sure there were more rules to it than that, unsaid expectations on how Peridot was to act and behave while Marigold was here that she would surely be called out on if she didn't meet said expectations.

It didn't need to be said either that if Peridot failed to follow these rules that Marigold would be required to inform Diane Diamante, and that was something Peridot did not want happening.

She shuddered at the very thought.

Right now it appeared that all Peridot had to do was play by the rules and be on her best behavior. Work her ass off to raise her grades back up before the semester ended.

Swallowing hard, Peridot frowned as she glanced discretely at a calendar. Midterms would be coming up pretty soon. That should be more than enough time to bring everything back up to an A, right? Of course it was. She had plenty of time.

There wasn't anything left to go over and Peridot excused herself to her room while Marigold took over the office to do the other half of her job as serving the Diamante CEO. Peridot let out a groan as she laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. This was going to be an awful few months, it truly was. She just hoped she could get her grades up quickly enough so she didn't have to deal with Marigold.

Honestly, she couldn't wait for Monday to come, then at least she could spend some time with Lapis.

Peridot felt a chill run up her spine. It was going to be hard keeping Lapis a secret from Marigold. The last thing she needed was her mother finding out that Peridot was dating her teacher. She would have to ask Lapis about it next time she saw her, ask if she had any ideas on how to keep themselves hidden from the world.

Thinking about Lapis… Peridot felt a goofy smile form on her face. Damn, she had it bad for that woman, didn't she?

* * *

Time went by and soon enough Peridot was with Lapis once again. "Good morning," Lapis whispered as she began peppering kisses along Peridot's neck and cheek.

Lapis had told Peridot to meet her in the fine arts section of the school, the same area their class was in. As soon as they'd crossed paths, Lapis had pulled Peridot into one of the small, usually empty and unused office for the faculty that taught anything that wasn't 'educationally important', AKA classes like art, drama and music. Teachers didn't really use it, as seen by the dust that was on many of the shelves.

The teacher had pulled Peridot close, arms around her waist as she affectionately kissed every inch of Peridot's face as she could. "You were taking so long, I was starting to get worried that your new babysitter gobbled you up," she teased lightly.

Peridot rolled her eyes and gave Lapis a quick kiss on the lips, "I don't think cannibalism is her thing, wouldn't fit in with the image she's trying to keep."

The bluenette snorted and moved to sit on the desk. She quickly tugged Peridot up to rest in her lap as she encircled her arms around the blonde's tiny waist and rested her chin on her fluffy hair, "Real talk, though. How did it go?" she asked, "You were pretty nervous when he parted, are things as bad as you thought they'd be"

Peridot let out a low groan as she hid her face in Lapis' collarbone, "She's trying real hard to act like my mother, and not in a good way."

"Sounds bad."

"You've no idea," Peridot replied.

Glancing at the clock that hung in the dim room, Peridot saw that they still had a few minutes before class started. One of the benefits of coming to school earlier than most students bothered too. It gave her more time to be with Lapis without the prying eyes of the world.

She sank deeper into Lapis' hold, trailing her fingers up and down the woman's back. "Hey, Lapis, I've a question."

"Hm?" Lapis hummed.

Cheeks heating up, Peridot struggled with her words for a moment, not sure how to ask. Not sure if she should ask. "It's probably a stupid question," she mumbled in embarrassment as she looked down, "But, um, how are we going to make this work?" she asked her.

Lapis pulled back and looked down at the blonde with a cocked brow and a confused expression, "What do you mean?"

She felt hot under Lapis' gaze and refused to look up at her, "How are we going to do this, be together and make it work?" she asked her again, "We can't exactly advertise to the world that we're dating, and we can't let anyone know we're together."

Arms moving to rest on her shoulder and the other on her cheek, Lapis nudged Peridots chin up so she looked at her, "The world doesn't need to know we're dating," she answered as though it were simple. "The world doesn't need to know of our private life. So all we have to do is not show off to the world who we're dating," she said and then quirked up a smile, "Might be hard, though. I want everyone to know that I'm dating the best girl out there."

Face going red, Peridot hid it by pressing her head against Lapis' shoulder, "Shut up," she murmured, feeling her ears burning.

"It's true, you're the best girl out there." Lapis adjusted her and began peppering her with kisses, "You're the cutest, the prettiest, the smartest, the kindest, the list can go on and on."

Completely red and a stammering mess, Peridot couldn't form her words, not that it would have mattered because Lapis took that as her chance to claim Peridots lips for her own and the blonde just melted.

Eventually, she and Lapis parted ways so they could go to class. She must have looked happier as she sat in her desk that morning. Her face still slightly flushed from the little kissing session she'd shared with Lapis in private just minutes ago. Peridot had almost been late for class because of it, but, she really doubted Lapis would writer her a tardy slip when the reason she was late was because of Lapis. Still, she shared a tiny laugh to herself as she thought of it. She could see Lapis writing her a detention slip or something to force her to stay after class just so they could spend time together without suspicion.

Though she had almost been late for class, Lapis certainly had been late. She rushed into class after the bell rang, apologizing for arriving late and claiming that she'd been held up by something. She'd glanced at Peridot discretely as she said 'something' and it took an iron will for Peridot not to give her a smug look in return.

Honestly, it was kind of amazing that the two managed to go about class without making it obvious that something was going on between them. Lapis treated her just as she always had in class, and Peridot did her best not to stare at Lapis too much and to keep the dreamy look on her face to a minimum.

Still, she must have not hidden it too well, it must have been clear that something was different. During lunch (Peridot had chosen to eat in the lunch room today as Lapis had a teachers meeting with the other Fine Arts teachers during that time, and she didn't want to risk the weight room to spend time with Jasper just yet) Amethyst had practically tackled her down and tugged her to a table with her and Pearl.

The expression Amethyst had, it was a knowing one and Peridot found herself afraid that her best friend had already figured out what was going on.

"Okay, P, what happened?" Amethyst asked, leaning forward and wearing a grin.

Putting her tray down on the table and did her best to look as though she was innocent, "I don't know what you're talking about," she said simply.

"Oh don't give me that, you looked like you were on cloud nine all day." Amethyst shook her head. "Did something happen with that crush you got? Did you ask them out and they said yes because who wouldn't?"

"Amethyst," Pearl scolded lightly as she patted the girl on the arm, "Really, you shouldn't be invading her privacy like that."

Amethyst shrugged and leaned back in her chair, "What? I just wanna know if something good has happened to my best friend, that's all," she defended herself and then turned to look at Peridot again, "So, has something good happened?" she asked with a toothy smile, ignoring Pearls exasperated complaint.

Feeling the attention on her, Peridot ducked her head and shook her head 'no'. "Nothing new, sorry to disappoint," she said.

"Bullshit," Amethyst laughed, "I know you better than that, Peri, come on, you can tell me," no, she really couldn't.

Thankfully, at least Pearl was on her side that day as she tugged Amethyst a way, her face holding that stern expression she always used when scolding someone. "Amethyst, leave her be. Let her tell us what's going on when she wants to," she said in a clipped tone, "It's clearly not something bad if she's appeared so happy by it, so just let her be."

"Thank you, Pearl," Peridot smiled, at least someone was on her side. "It's really not something that big, I just don't want to share what it is, that's all."

Amethyst crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, but didn't press it any further. Instead she opted to chat with Pearl, talking about small things, the usual. Peridot smiled softly as she ate. Her phone buzzed and she had to keep herself from grinning like a dork lest her friends notice and question her about the nature of the text. She still kept a small smile as she read the text Lapis sent her.

Meet her after school? Yeah, she can do that. She'd just have to let Marigold know she was staying after school. Typing a quick reply, Peridot was looking forward to hanging out with Lapis later.


	17. Chapter 17

**Authors Note:** Okay so I've actually had two chapters done and posted on AO3 for a while now. I just kind of forgot to update on this site. So for those of you who don't read it on AO3 then well, now you get to read the new chapters.

I'll post the next chapter tomorrow.

* * *

Marigold had allowed it. Begrudgingly of course. But she let it happen with the promise that Peridot be back before five that afternoon. That gave the girl two hours max before she had to be back home or else, well, she didn't know what Marigold would do, and she didn't have any intention on finding out what she would do either.

She had to turn down Pearl and Amethyst's invite to hang out, too. She wasn't even sure how to explain to them what was going on. While she didn't think Amethyst would be too upset about it if she told her what was going on (the girl would probably hoot and holler and congratulate Peridot on 'bagging a hottie'), Pearl would be up in arms about getting the school board on Lapis for this, because of the, well, irregularity of their relationship.

Irregularity was what Peridot could only think to describe it. After all it wasn't exactly normal. But did normalcy really matter in the end? Who cared if it was normal if Peridot was happy with it, happy with Lapis?

Well, she just had to be careful not to let the wrong people know. Which just meant not let anyone know at all at the moment. Once she graduated then there wouldn't be any worries, and it was her senior year after all.

Still, she had to be careful, her and Lapis both. There were… a lot of risks to what they were doing. Peridot had to be realistic about that.

But the risks didn't stop her excitement to meet up with Lapis when school ended, to be able to just talk and be with her without prying eyes. She was eager to be with Lapis and God dammit she was kind of in to deep, wasn't she? Still, when class ended she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and made her way to the art room. She couldn't help but smile a little whenever she approached the familiar door.

There was a bit of a skip in her step as she hurried, ducking past students eager to leave for home as she was eager to stay in school. Funny, wasn't it? What kind of student was actually happy about spending more time then needed inside of the school building? Well, she couldn't say that most of those students had ever had someone like Lapis to make her want to stay longer in school.

She slowed to a stop and slowly pushed the door open, sliding into the classroom quietly.

Lapis was at her paint stained desk, looking over papers, her blue eyes narrowed intently and she read through the messy handwritings and papers over different art theories and artists. She hadn't seemed to notice Peridot had entered, completely focused on her work and being, well, a teacher. It was kind of interesting seeing her look like a teacher.

As quietly as she could, Peridot closed the door behind her and put her bag down at a table and slowly approached her.

It wasn't until Peridot was right in front of her that Lapis looked up. Seeing who it was, a wide smile covered her face, amazingly bright and sending Peridot's heart to do little pitter-patters.

"Hey, babe," Lapis greeted as she put down her pen, her voice playful and light, "I see you got permission to hang out with me. Was worried you might leave me all to my lonesome."

Peridot gave a light shrug, "Well, I mean, not like I had anything better to do, you know?" she replied before giving a crooked grin, "but if you want, I can just go home."

"Nooo!" Lapis reached out to grasp onto her sleeve as though that would keep her from leaving, not that Peridot had any intention on leaving. "Come on, I barely got to see you all day, not fair to ditch me already," she had a cute pout on her lips as she said that.

There was no way that Peridot could genuinely up and leave her, not when she had such a cute expression on her face. Seriously, it should be illegal for Lapis to be both unbelievable hot and insanely cute at the same time. There was no way that Peridot could ever say no to her at this rate. Still, she had some pride and something of an appearance to keep up, even if it mattered little when Lapis was around.

"Well, I'd be willing to stay with you if you had something that'd make it worth it," Peridot said offhandedly.

As soon as the words left her mouth, a dark and mischievous light filled those blue eyes. "Oh, really?" Lapis asked, her tone almost sultry as she stood from her seat and tugged Peridot a little closer, "I can make that happen."

She leaned forward and captured Peridot's lips with her own. It was a slow kiss, a little awkward with the desk between them, but still full of emotion. Lapis brought her hands to cup Peridot's face with one, and rest on her back with the other.

They broke apart only when oxygen became a problem, both panting and a little pink in the cheeks. Lapis let go of Peridot, but only briefly as she came out from behind her desk to stand before the short blonde once more, her hands on her body in a matter of seconds, drawing her face in close to Peridot's own and planting a feather soft kiss on her ear. "I can make it even more worth it if you want," she added.

Was she suggesting what Peridot thought she was? From the way she held her and the way she said it, Peridot had to assume that, yes, Lapis was insinuating exactly what she thought. It was probably a bit too early, like really early, they hadn't even been together for that long kind of early. But Peridot would be lying if she said she didn't have a thirst, and raging hormones too, but mostly a thirst. So she moved to give Lapis a bruising kiss, her hands clinging to the teachers clothing.

As though that was all that was needed and a switch of sorts had been pressed, things quickly grew hot in the room. Lapis moved the two until Peridot found herself pressed against one of the table, Lapis broke from the kiss to start assaulting her neck with her lips and teeth Her fingers dug into Lapis' shoulder as she closed her eyes, letting out a soft mewl as Lapis began nipping and sucking at a particularly sweet spot. "Lapis," she breathed out softly, feeling fingers dancing along her sides.

"Lapis…" she whimpered as Lapis tugged at the collar of her shirt and began sucking her clavicle.

She let out a small squeak as Lapis wrapped her strong arms around her and hoisted her up, setting her to sit on the classroom desk. Once she was seated, Lapis latched onto her, kissing her hard. It was passionate and hot as she brought her hands up to run her fingers through blonde locks.

Her tongue pressed against Peridot's lips, forcing their way through and into the warm, wet cavern of her mouth. Their tongues began to wrestle for dominance as she pressed her weight against the smaller girl, their bodies flush against one another. There was too much clothes between them and Lapis was ready to fix that.

The artist drew her hands under Peridot's shirt, pushing it up and only pulling back from the kiss so that she could pull it off, leaving her in her pants and bra. With all the new skin bare and open for love, Lapis began trailing kisses down her body. Leaving a line of bites, the occasional suck too on tender skin.

"Mine," Lapis whispered as she bit hard into a patch of skin right above the start of Peridots bra. It was so sharp of a bite that Peridot let out a sharp cry, something of pleasure and pain mixed in. Lapis gave it an apologetic kiss on the forming bruise. It was her way of claiming Peridot in a way.

Peridot closed her eyes tightly, a quiet, muffled moan escaping her as she felt Lapis's hands tracing her body. Her body felt so hot and unbearable, she wanted her touch so badly.

The blue haired woman had begun to kiss lower, "Mine," she whispered again, and again, and again. She drew lower and lower until she reached the hem of Peridot's pants. Looking up at Peridot in the eyes, she waited with a silent question until the blonde gave a quiet nod.

Standing back up, Lapis pressed her lips against Peridots. It was breathtaking and Peridot wasted no time tangling her fingers in those blue strands as Lapis slid her thumbs under her jeans and began to slowly slide them down.

"Lapis, are you in there?"

A knock on the door broke the kiss and broke their attention from each other to the warm, sweet voice that echoed on the other side.

They looked at each other, eyes wide before pulling apart in a mass panic, Lapis practically throwing herself off of Peridots smaller form and scrambling to find her shirt off the floor. "Shit!" Lapis hissed as she threw Peridot's shirt at her, watching as the girl struggled to yank up her pants, both their faces bright red.

"Lapis?"

"One moment," Lapis called back, trying to sound as casual as she could be and not sound like she was about to do something very indecent with her own student. Mentally she berated herself. How stupid could she have been to forget something as simple as locking the goddamn door?!

She hastily helped Peridot for a moment to get her shirt on, concealing the few hickies Lapis had left over her skin before tugging her off the table. As an extra thought, she threw some random papers from her desk onto the table between them to make themselves look like they were talking about something class related.

Lapis quickly dove in for one last kiss, brief as it may have been, and just as quickly she pulled away. In good timing too as not a moment later the door was being pushed open.

"Sorry to intrude," Rose apologized as she stepped into the art room, a pile of papers under her arm. "There were some papers in the lounge for you, and I thought that I would drop them off to your room since this was on my way," she flashed the two a pleasant smile.

Peridot refused to look at either, not wanting to risk either seeing her blushing face, or to make it even worse. So instead she focused on pretending to read the papers before her, while in fact she wasn't even registering the words, just glaring intently at the desk itself as though it might swallow her up and take her away from here.

"It's no problem," Lapis gave a small smile, playing it cool like she was some sort of pro. Peridot kind of envied her for that. She held out her hands to take the papers from Rose, "Thanks for dropping them off, Rose."

The plump woman gave a small hum and then turned to Peridot, "I'm surprised to see you still here, shouldn't you have gone home? I can't imagine you got detention and are serving it out here with Ms. Lazuli."

At being spoken too, Peridot gave a small jump and glanced at Rose Quartz briefly, "I, well, um," her mind was coming to a blank on what to say. She couldn't very well tell the nurse that she was here because she was having an intense make out session with the art teacher, after all.

But Lapis was there to save her hind, "Well, Peridot wanted to go over some papers with me, so I'm just sticking around to help her out. Can't just abandon any future aspiring artists, you know?" she was so casual as she spoke, like what just happened had never happened.

"Oh?" Rose said and peered at the papers on the table. Soon enough a wide smile broke across her face, "Oh, that's wonderful, Peridot. I didn't know you were into competitions."

"What?" Peridot said quickly but it was drowned out by the nurse who continued to talk.

"I remember the entries from last year, I took Steven with me. They were just wonderfully done, they all should have won in my opinion," Rose spoke like it was such a fond memory, and knowing her, it probably was one, "oh but I'm sure the piece you'll submit will be just as amazing, if not even more!" the pink haired woman said with a smile that could light up an entire city and make Peridot want to wear several sunglasses at once.

Instead, she just cast Lapis a desperate look.

"Yeah, well, Peridot had been rather interested in entering this year. So I was going over the regulations and how it works, as well as bouncing some project ideas with her," Lapis spoke and at that moment Peridot kind of wanted to strangle her, "I mean, she's one of my best students, a rising artist I like to think. So I'm more than happy to help her out, you know?"

As they spoke, Peridot dared to look at the papers Lapis had thoughtlessly given her when Rose came. Lo and behold, they were flyers to a local art contest. Lapis must have been meaning to hand them out to class tomorrow. Well, fuck.

Rose tilted her head as she watched the two, "I've actually volunteered to help the contest out this year. The sign up sheet hasn't been brought to the school yet, but I'd be more than happy to sign Peridot up myself when I head home, that way she doesn't need to wait."

"Really? That'd be great," Peridot said, trying to sound pleasant, though it came through clenched teeth.

Lapis threw her an apologetic look and Rose didn't seem to notice her not to thrilled tone about it all.

"Well, I really ought to get going now," Rose said then, "Greg is working late so I need to pick Steven up from school. But I'll make sure to sign you up, Peridot. Good luck!"

"Thanks, Mrs. Quartz," Peridot said with a fake smile as the large woman made her exit. Once the door was closed, she whirled on Lapis with her eyes blazing, "What the hell, Lapis?" she hissed.

The blue haired woman gave a sheepish laugh and ran a hand through her hair, "Yeah, sorry about that, Peri," she apologized, her expression the kind where you realized you kind of fucked up a bit, "I kind of panicked and just agreed with it. So, I guess, good luck with the contest. Or, well, getting out of the contest."

Peridot buried her face in her hands and let out a low, muffled scream.


	18. Chapter 18

"I can talk to Rose if this upsets you this much," Lapis offered as she pulled her car into a stop along the curb. Peridot grumbled something unintelligible under her breath in the seat next to her, and the teacher shot her a guilty look, "Really, it's kind of my fault you got into this mess, it won't be a problem talking to her about it."

Peridot gave a tired, somewhat angry sigh as she shook her head, "No… no…" she answered, slumping in the soft seat in defeat. "I just know that my mom will catch wind of this some way or how. It'll be less painful to just go along with it, she won't be happy about it, but she's going to be even less happy if I drop out."

"Really?" Her mother sounded less and less pleasant every time Peridot brought her up. Then again, she was enough of a source of stress to have caused Lapis to find Peridot drunk in the rain one night, so… well, it wasn't too surprising that she'd react that way to an art contest.

Holding back her own sigh, Lapis turned her car off and turned in her seat to face Peridot.

She really, really did feel bad about causing Peridot to get into this position. She'd started something she shouldn't have in the middle of their damn classroom after all. They were lucky there weren't cameras in her room. Still, she should have at the very least have locked the door. No, she shouldn't have started that at all, she should have just kept it in her pants. It was like she was a hormonal teenager who had no control over herself all over again. Lapis wasn't like that, at least, she liked to think she wasn't like that. But the fact was, when Peridot was involved, she might as well be a hormonal teenager again.

Peridot just, she did funny things to Lapis.

A part of her, a very big part of her, wished that Rose hadn't interrupted them during their time together in the art room. Peridot had been making such wonderful and adorable noises. Lapis had wanted to continue, hear what other noises Peridot would have made as she brought her to the very brink.

But, no, it had been far too early for them to do that. Lapis and her had gotten carried away.

An even bigger part of Lapis wanted to take things slow with Peridot. She didn't want to rush into things and screw everything up. She wanted this relationship to be something good, something that would last.

Lapis offered Peridot a smile, "Well, if you change your mind," she said, "otherwise, I'm here to help if you want it for the contest."

Peridot quirked a brow at her, her expression softening a bit now, "Isn't it against the rules or something to have a teacher help me during this contest?" she asked somewhat playfully.

"Hey, it's not a school contest and I'm not part of the ones judging and running the show, so I can help you out as much as you want," Lapis replied with a little laugh.

It was some kind of city wide contest. People of all ages were going to be entering, that's what made it interesting, at least as far as Lapis thought. Of course, there were different divisions that they'd be participating in, and there were still plenty of months until the pieces were all due. If Lapis remembered the dates right, the art contest wouldn't take place until February, so there were still a few months to go before any pieces were actually due, what with it only being late November currently.

Peridot was smiling now, it was soft and small, but it was a smile, and that was enough for Lapis. She'd been worried that she may have ruined the rest of Peridot's day by what had happened in the art room, but it seemed that she'd been able to improve her mood somewhat during the car ride as she drove the blonde home.

"Well, in that case… I'll take you up on that offer when I start realizing that I don't have the slightest idea what I'm going to do for this contest," Peridot assured her as fiddled with the seatbelt, letting it snap back into place and give herself more freedom in the car. "Look, I know it's not what I want, but, it might not be that bad, I guess. Hell, it could give me an excuse to stay after school to spend time with you, right?" Her cheeks were tinted a pale red and she adverted her gaze as she said that, clearly embarrassed by the notion.

Lapis felt her heart do a little pitter-patter in her chest. Damn, did Peridot even know how cute she looked right now? Probably not.

"I'll be more than happy to help you out," Lapis said and leaned over to give Peridot a quick kiss to the cheek. "Now, go on and get out of here, or your babysitter might throw a fit," she added with a quick laugh.

She could see Peridot's cheeks turn darker in pure embarrassment over being reminded of the current resident of her home, Mari-something-or-other. Honestly, Lapis didn't really remember what the girls name was, other than she was something of an annoying woman from what she got from Peridot's complaints.

Hopefully Lapis wouldn't have to meet her any time soon.

"See you later, Lapis," Peridot murmured as she grabbed her bag and slipped out of the car, "Try not to get into any trouble before school, okay?"

"I make no promises," Lapis replied.

She waited where she parked to watched Lapis head home the rest of the way, just to make sure she got there in one piece. It wasn't really needed, she'd dropped her off at the corner of her block, Peridot not wanting to be dropped off right at her house in case Marigold saw them, but Lapis wanted to make sure that Peridot did make it home the rest of the way. So she waited until Peridot turned and disappeared inside of her house before she started up the car and made her drive back home.

It was quiet the rest of the way, with only the soft hum of the radio to keep her company as she drove home. When she went through her door she was greeted by a happy Malachite. Lapis let her out into the back yard to do her business as she prepared some tea for herself.

She might as well send Peridot some texts later that night. Maybe some goofy photos of Malachite. She could ask for some cat pictures in return, like an animal photo trade.

With a cup of tea ready and Malachite brought back inside, she rested herself onto the couch and leaned back. Christmas was coming up, just a month away and then there would be a few weeks before the second semester. Even though they were so close to the winter season, not a single drop of snow had fallen from the sky yet. Though, it was Beach City and it rarely snowed in this town. When it did, it was bad enough to close school down and block roads. So Lapis could enjoy the warm weather if it meant she wasn't barricaded under feet of snow.

Still, she wanted to do something special for Peridot for the day. Maybe she could find her a present of sort. Well, she had a month to figure out what to do for her girlfriend for the holidays, no need to rush it.

Her phone buzzed and Lapis lazily glanced down at it. It was a text from an unknown number, so Lapis opened it up and skimmed through the text. Lapis' eyes widened and her cup of tea clattered to the ground startling Malachite.

Aquamarine.


	19. Chapter 19

Collapsing on her bed, Peridot grabbed one of her pillows and quickly smothered her face in it, letting out a low and long groan.

When she got home, she had intended to tell her mother about what had happened, pick up her phone and call her, call her so that her mother could hear from her right away that she wound up in an art contest. It would have been better that way, after all, compared to her finding out through the teachers and then throwing passive aggressive shade Peridot's way for not telling her.

So, yeah, she tried to call and tell her, she really did. But, when she picked up her phone and prepared to dial the number, she just froze. Even without hitting the call button, Peridot could hear that disappointed voice telling her what a waste of time it was that she was part of such a 'trivial' contest. There was no doubt in her mind that the Diamond was going to be unhappy with this no matter what, there was nothing Peridot could say or do that would make her think better of this, and she'd be hearing those micro-aggressive remarks for a good while as she told her how disappointed she was in Peridot without out right saying "You disappoint me".

It was stressful and to keep things short, Peridot just chickened out and refrained from calling her.

It was stupid, beyond stupid, really, and Peridot was disappointed in herself for not being able to steady her nerves enough to let her own mother know she was entering a contest, even if it wasn't necessarily a contest she willingly signed up for. But, the Diamond didn't need to know the full reasons for why she signed up. God, this was stupid.

She let out another long groan when knocking echoed on her door. Slowly, she removed her pillow to look tiredly in it's direction.

"Peridot, you better be doing your homework in there," Marigold said in that annoying high and mighty tone of hers from the other side, "I want you to bring me all your assignments when you're done tonight so I can look them over."

She rolled her eyes and then rolled over in bed, "I'm working on them," she called back, well, she would get to them soon enough so it wasn't a complete lie. She waited and heard a satisfied noise from her babysitter and then the familiar clicking of designer heels as Marigold left back to another room and left Peridot in peace. The student shook her head and then looked back at her phone. It was starting to get kind of late, a good few hours since she'd last seen her, and she wondered what Lapis was up to right now.

* * *

Lapis tapped her fingers against the steering wheel impatiently and glanced up at the parking lot. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she swallowed a nervous lump in her throat. She couldn't believe she was doing this, actually doing this. This was stupid, she should have ignored her phone, ignored Aqua and just gone back to her own life. But, no, she just had to come out here in the dark of night to meet up with her.

Her eyes glanced behind her to where Malachite snoozed in the back seat. She'd brought her dog with her as a precaution, in case things got bad and she needed some protection. Who knew what was going to happen when Aquamarine was involved.

She could have been home in Beach City, but no, she was here at the Ocean Town airport.

Aquamarine had needed a place to stay while she was in town looking for work, and since Lapis lived here, she'd asked if she could crash with her until she got her own place and job. When Lapis had tried to sneakily decline, pointing out she didn't live in Ocean Town anymore, but had moved to Beach City for work, of course the gremlin had said that it was fine, that Beach City was where she was planning to find a job anyways. Lapis, as much as she wanted to, couldn't bring herself to outright say no to her. She'd agreed to pick Aqua up at the airport and let her stay with her.

Heaving a sigh, she slowly rested her head against the wheel. Maybe she should just go back home, Aqua was late after all, she could go home and say she assumed that Aquamarine found a different ride and didn't tell her, tell her that she waited and waited, but Aquamarine never showed up so she left, then it wouldn't be her in the wrong.

But before she could do any of that, there was tapping on the window and she gave a jump. Slowly turning she watched with tired eyes as the very same woman she hadn't been too eager to see in the first place waved at her for her to unlock the door. Lapis sent a silent prayer that she'd survive this encounter and the doors lock gave a click, a moment later it opened and Aqua slid into the passenger seat and tossed her bags into the back, narrowly missing Malachite who quickly woke up at the sudden commotion

"Thanks for picking me up," Aquamarine said with a tight smile, she still had that British accent of hers despite however many years she'd lived in the States, "it's good to see you again."

Lapis gave a small shrug, "It's no problem," she lied.

As the passenger settled into her seat, Lapis gave her a once over, taking in her appearance and how much it had changed since she'd last seen her. "Did you get that tattoo while in prison?" she asked, only half joking and motioning to the teardrop on Aquamarines cheek. She couldn't help but feel a bit of irritation that the smaller woman had copied Lapis' own tattoo design for herself, Lapis had the teardrop on her back long before Aquamarine had inked up her face. Hell, it wasn't even the tattoo that had been stolen from her style, she'd even dyed her hair blue as well and cut it short. Thank God her hairstyle was in a short bob and not the same cut that Lapis had, there was a blue ribbon in her hair, which gave her hair its own look as well.

Still, it was creepy how much of Lapis the smaller woman had seemingly copied.

"Oh, you wish. Actually I got it shortly after they let me out," Aqua said as the car started up, she was saying it so casually she might as well been talking about the weather of hte day, "A couple of friends of mine from prison, the Topaz sisters, they got out two months before me, inked me up when I got out."

She still couldn't believe that Aquamarine was out at all, a part of Lapis wished she was still behind bars so as to never bother her again for as long as they both lived. Then again, drug peddling itself didn't get you decades of time in the cell, if Lapis remembered right, Aquamarine only got five years of prison after her little drug dealing got caught. Lapis assumed she must have been let out a few months ago for parole, it could have been a year if Aqua had been behaving well, not that she believed Aquamarine would ever 'behave good'.

"So how have things been? You must have been dreadfully bored while I was away, after all I was the one who brought you all the fun" Aqua said as she leaned back in the seat, a cocky little smirk on her face that Lapis wanted to smack off her. She glanced into the back seat and reached over to pet Malachite, "Oh, hey there pooch. How's things with Jasper? You two finally tie the not yet or what?"

Lapis tightened her grip on the wheel as they reached a stoplight, "We broke up a while back, actually."

"That'd explain why you're not in Ocean Town anymore," she mused as though it weren't that big a deal, "But, it's kind of a shame, you two were just perfect for each other, an envious couple for sure. Hope whatever you've got going between you can be worked out."

The car started moving again.

Great together? Yeah, right. Aquamarine had only ever been there for the good moments, when the two could act like everything was fine and they were happy and healthy. She was never around for the screaming matches or when they started swinging fists at each other. She was never there to see the two ruining each other every way possible. Aquamarine had only seen the good, and half the time the good was just an act.

"Maybe we were, but we're not going to be getting back together, ever" Lapis said as the car pulled out onto the highway, putting them on route back to Beach City.

A silence fell over them as they drove and after a few minutes Aquamarine reached over to turn on the stereo. Lapis rolled her eyes a little as she turned up the volume on some horrible "new generation" type of music that was all about angst and drugs.

Every so often Lapis would find herself glancing over to Aqua as they drove, make sure she wasn't up to anything, make sure she was still there. She watched as Aquamarine rolled down the window on her side and pulled out a cigarette from her pocket. The smaller blue haired woman began patting down her pockets and made a face when she couldn't find what she was looking for.

"Hey, Lapis, you have a light?"

She shook her head, "Sorry, no," Lapis answered, and then she added, "I don't smoke anymore."

Aquamarine grumbled some kind of complaint under her breath as she stuck the unlit cigarette back in its pack and into her pocket again. The window was rolled back up, though, Aquamarine kept staring out it as they drove back to Beach City, their conversation having died between them.

Soon enough they were pulling into town and Lapis put them on a familiar road back to her house. Aquamarine was watching with intent as they drove through the small little town, going past the high school and through the business district. For a moment, Lapis was expecting her to be asked to be dropped off at a bar, but the request never came. Her cousin remained quiet the drive through town towards Lapis' home.

They reached her house a few minutes later and she turned her car off and got out, opening the back door and letting Malachite out of the car next. Aquamarine slipped out and closed the door behind her, looking at the house and giving a low and long whistle in surprise, clearly impressed.

"Isn't this Grams old house?" she asked, though no confirmation was needed, "I'm surprised you got the house."

Fishing out her keys from her pockets, Lapis gave a shrug, "I needed a place to live after moving out of Jaspers place, Grandma offered to give me the house since she was moving to Florida." Aquamarine gave a nod, understanding the situation as Lapis opened the door and turned on the lights. "There's a guest room you can use down the hall to the right."

"Right on, I think I'll take this as a chance to get some sleep. It's late and it was a long flight over here." She was already going down the hall and following the directions given.

Lapis waited until she heard the door shut before she sank down on the couch with her head in her hands.

What was she doing? Why was she letting Aquamarine back in her life? This was just as bad as letting _Jasper_ back in her life. Even if this was just for a few days, who knew what Aqua would do here, and anything she did here would reflect on Lapis.

Malachite padded over and rested her chin on her lap. Lapis looked at her and offered her a small ear scratch.

"I know, family is important and all," she mumbled under her breath as though to keep her cousin from hearing her, "but I just can't… this was a made idea, Mala."

The dog whined and Lapis offered her a small smile, she let her climb on the couch and curl up next to her as Lapis drew out her phone and flipped through her contacts. For a brief moment she considered asking Peridot on advice, the girl had more than her share of crappy family members after all. She hesitated over the call button and ultimately put her phone away.

No reason to drag Peridot into her family mess. The girl was too sweet of a person, if she knew what kind of things she did with Aquamarine, Peridot probably wouldn't look at her the same. Even more, Lapis quickly realized, she was going to have to be even more careful now. Her home wasn't private anymore, she was going to have to figure out how to be with Peridot without Aquamarine catching on.

Why couldn't things be simple?


End file.
